David Keenleyside heads Saints second goal
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After three weeks of non-stop cup football St Albans City returned to Southern League action on Wednesday and gave notice of their Premier Division promotion aspirations with two excellent David Keenleyside goals laying the foundation for a highly impressive 3-0 win over Cambridge City at Bridge Road.
The evening contained a series of oddities ranging from Cambridge being hit by injuries that led to manager Gary Roberts only being able to name three substitutes, while St Albans named a full quota of five substitutes without knowing if any of them would actually arrive at the Glassworld Stadium.
Delayed by heavy traffic out of London the St Albans quintet did get to the ground 20 minutes before the kick off but were too late to make the starting XI.
Injury also ruled out Ben Martin and Ryan Wharton while sickness accounted for Harrison Georgiou and a suspension put Darren Locke on the sidelines.
The Saints gave a debut to 23-year-old central defender Tom Ward who joined the club earlier in the day on a one-month loan from Conference North side Gainsborough Trinity, and the former Boston United player formed a good partnership with 18-year-old James Kaloczi.
Elliot Bailey filled in for Mark Nwokeji alongside John Frendo while Danny Green retained his place in midfield and Howard Hall returned at right back.
Cambridge made three changes from the side that chalked up a good victory over Stourbridge in the Lilywhites previous outing.
A cold night played a part in restricting the attendance to the lowest seen at Cambridge’s temporary home and it was the visiting fans that had most to savour early on as the Saints quickly gained the upper hand.
Inside the opening minute a Chris Watters cross clipped the head of Cambridge defender Luke Allen and dropped to Keenleyside whose volley bounced across the face of the goal.
St Albans continued to look the most threatening side early on, but Histon’s lodgers were most unfortunate not to open the scoring when a James Brighton corner was missed by Paul Bastock and headed goalwards by Josh Beech only for Watters to scramble the ball clear from right on the goalline.
The Saints chances of ending a run of four straight defeats away to the Lilywhites rose on 20 minutes when the ball was played across the pitch to left-back Lee Chappell whose cross was headed away by Will Lawton.
The clearance went straight to Keenleyside who, standing 15 yards from goal, controlled the ball with his first touch while his second left keeper Zac Barrett groping aimlessly as it flew past his left hand and into the corner of the net.
Five minutes later Keenleyside was only a yard or so over the target with a crisp drive from 25 yards out.
Keenleyside continued torment the home defence with a run and exchange of passes with Frendo that ended with the midfielder cutting the ball towards the near post where Bailey was just unable to turn it in.
Cambridge were a pale imitation of the side that impressed at Clarence Park in September and long shots from Allen and Adam Marriott, twice, failed to seriously test City captain Bastock.
The Saints second goal on 41 minutes was a classic team effort of nine passes as the ball was moved the width of the pitch.
Finally, Watters received a short pass from Chappell and picked out Keenleyside’s run that took him between three static defenders to head with great style to the left of the bemused Barrett.
Bastock ensured that the Yellows turned around two-goals to the good when smothering a shot by Lee Chaffey to snuff out Cambridge’s last effort of the half.
For a side that had won eight of its previous ten league games Cambridge looked low on confidence during the opening 45 minutes and St Albans appeared well set to record a sizeable victory.
The three-goal margin is certainly emphatic enough but for much of the second half former Saints boss Roberts could only look on in frustration as his current side exerted good pressure but failed to match the clinical efficiency of his previous club.
Early after the restart Nick Beasant just fail to head in from a corner, while Allen stretched to divert a Brighton cross across the front of Bastock’s goal, and the keeper also darted to clear from outside of the penalty area as Beasant closed in.
Good work by Marriott kept City pinned down and Beasant also had a shot blocked as the likelihood of a Cambridge goal grew.
Allen maintained the pressure with a diving header to a Brighton cross that led to one more mass scramble while Hall made a crucial clearance as a low cross by Robbie Burns threatened to hurt the Saints.
All St Albans had to offer at this time were soft efforts from Frendo and James Comley, that were saved easily, while Ward placed a header onto the roof of the net.
With Cambridge now pushing forward with greater confidence and style a goal looked almost inevitable but far too many shots lacked sufficient power and a wonderful move suffered the same fate when Allen’s low drive was parried away by Bastock.
But any hope the Lilywhites still held of staving off defeat vanished in the 78th minute courtesy of a bizarre own goal.
Frendo shrugged off Tom Pepper on the edge of the penalty area and laid the ball into the path of Watters.
His crisp low cross along the turf was somehow turned into his own net by Brighton despite the full-back not even facing the goal at the time.
The home side still sought to avoid their biggest loss at home to the Saints but a shot off target by Allen and a firm drive over the bar by Josh Dawkins left the Lilywhites to reflect on failing to score in a home league match for the first time this season.
St Albans victory stretches their unbeaten away record to 11 games and takes the current good run to just one defeat in 15 games.
The Saints return to action on Saturday, 23rd November, with a Southern League encounter with St Neots Town at Rowley Park, kick off is at 3pm. |
