First half goals from Simon Martin and Jon Challinor put St Albans City into a commanding position at a bone chilling Short Lane on Tuesday night before lowly Ryman League Division One South side Ashford Town staged a spirited fight back which came within a whisker of taking this 3rd Round Bryco (League) Cup tie into extra time.
With the Saints playing their preferred attacking duo of Gary Crawshaw and Martin together for only the second time in 17 games the visitors settled quickly at Ashford’s neat but small and virtually empty ground and early on looked set for a goal feast at the expense of the side just one place off the foot of the table.
Having snatched two late goals to squeeze past Bognor a week earlier in the previous Round, City wasted no time in getting ahead this time around with Martin beating keeper Garvin Snell to his right from the penalty spot after just eight minutes. Snell had conceded the penalty himself after bringing down Martin who had been sent through the middle by Steve Castle.
The goal came as little surprise following the Saints encouraging start but within a minute only a good save by Richard Wilmot from Tom Hedges protected that lead. City looked to have doubled their advantage in the 11th minute when a deep Dominic Naylor cross was volleyed back into the goalmouth by Scott Oakes for Crawshaw to score only for an offside flag to save the Middlesex club.
Gradually Ashford forced their way back into the game and after Wilmot had again saved from Hedges, Blaize O’Brien volleyed across the face of the goal following a wonderful pass by exSaint Andy Driscoll whose influence grew as the game wore on.
Crawshaw was thwarted again on 34 minutes when he met an Oakes free kick with a fine diving header only for Snell to save by the foot of the post and before the minute was out Snell also saved twice from Martin whose two attempted lobs both lacked power. City had a let off four minutes later when Wilmot went out of his area to put the ball out of play but a quickly taken throw caught him still in nomansland and a dipping effort from Hedges dropped just over the vacant goal.
A minute later Wilmot was more impressive with a goalsaving finger tip touch to Driscoll’s excellent 30 yard shot that deflected the ball onto the crossbar. City seemed to have settled the tie a minute from the interval when Oakes delivered a glorious ball low through the heart of the home defence for Challinor to latch onto and arrow to the keepers right for the second Saints goal.
With a brisk breeze to their backs City began the second period well in control but created few clear chances and were caught out in the 64th minute when O’Brien superbly controlled a cross to the near post and twisted to hammer a fine goal high to Wilmot’s left.
A spell of City pressure ended with Driscoll putting Martin’s shot for a corner and from Oakes ensuing cross Ryan Moran saw his header spectacularly headed off the line by Driscoll. During the latter stages Ashford had several chances to grab an equaliser with Vince O’Sullivan and Russell Canderton going the closest while two minutes from time a long clearance by Wilmot put Craig Mackail-Smith in the clear but his weak shot failed to trouble Snell.
Report by Dave Tavener |