St Albans City saw their three match winning home run come to a shattering end on Tuesday evening when Terry Brown's Aldershot Town side breezed to their third victory in four visits to Clarence Park with a performance every bit as convincing as the final scoreline suggests.
The Shots dominated for long stretches and with more care in front of goal could have handed the Saints a substantial beating but, as the final whistle sounded, there was a feeling of injustice as the Saints, although clearly playing second fiddle throughout, were on the receiving end of a series of decisions by referee Simon Gagen which defied logic.
St Albans were incensed when within the space of three second half minutes Mr Gagen turned a blind eye to a foul on Younes Nabil during the build up to the important second goal and then presented the visitors with a penalty as Mark Watson stumbled when turning into the penalty area.
The Saints would have settled for parity with similar situations at the opposite end of the pitch but instead the match official ignored a body-check by Owen Coll when Gary Ansell was set to break clear, overlooked a wild kick by Paul Harford on Gary Wraight and waved away penalty appeals after Coll appeared to trip Ryan Moran as he went for a header. Even a rugby tackle by the last defender, Leon Townley, on Simon Martin and a swinging elbow by Stafford Browne which broke Scott Holding's nose only earned the culprits yellow cards.
But whatever justified bleatings the Saints may have about the standard of the refereeing they only mustered one on target shot throughout the entire 90 minutes and can have no complaints to the margin of defeat. With Aldershot looking to impress their new manager and the City players supposedly playing for new contracts for next season an entertaining game was in prospect but in truth the Shots won at a canter.
After just four minutes the unmarked Browne headed wastefully over the bar from a Chris Allen cross but there was no escape for City four minutes later. Former City keeper Gareth Howells, a popular figure during his time at Clarence Park, rushed from his area to clear from Ansell but only got the ball as far as Rob Kean. The former Hitchin player shaped for a snap shot but was injured as a tackle came in and as he lay on the ground Aldershot broke swiftly and from Lee Protheroe's cross from the right Watson, at the second attempt scored from close in.
A low shot just wide from 20 yards and a dangerous outswinging free kick, both by Rob Smith, were the Saints best moments of the half while Browne twice fired over for Aldershot when well placed and Watson clipped a free kick over the top. The half ended with Browne somehow blazing over from six yards while Protheroe had a crisp drive blocked with Watson shooting wide from the rebound.
Although St Albans were unable to apply sustained pressure on the Shots goal after the interval there were several brighter moments for the Saints but when cynical tactics were successfully employed to terminate such moves without the punishment each merited it was clear this was not to be City's night.
City had a let off when Coll put a free header over the bar but the Saints were out of luck on 56 minutes when Harford clearly shoved Nabil off the ball but was allowed to proceed and put an excellent ball through the Saints defence for Browne to finally get his bearings right and send a delightful lob over Richard Wilmot and into the Hatfield Road goal.
The match moved completely out of City's reach on 58 minutes when Watson, down the Shots right and with his back to goal, tried to turn into the penalty area but with Moran in close attendance appeared to lose the ball and fell to the ground. Gagen pointed to the spot and Browne confidently struck the penalty low past Richard Wilmot.
Five minutes later City did get the ball into the net when Ansell headed home a Wraight free kick but the referee ordered the kick to be retaken as he was still walking the defensive wall back ten yards, City vehemently argued about the decision having not noticed that a linesmans flag was also up for offside.
From then on in it seemed that every contentious decision went against the Saints. Using their good fortune to the full Aldershot looked for more goals but were denied when Wilmot made a spectacular save from Townley's cracking volley and the City keeper also had to be alert to deal with Coll's stunning half volley from the halfway line. The woodwork came to Wilmot's rescue when the ball skidded off the head of a City defender while Howells was belatedly called into action to deal with a blistering drive from Wraight which the keeper parried and then managed to get his fingertips to Martin's follow up to save at the expense of a corner.
Report by Dave Davener |
