St Albans City F.C. History & Archives - Fixtures & Results | St Albans City F.C. History & Archives

Change: Move to:

23.09.2005 at 19:45 Brimsdown Sports Ground

Attendance : 525

Enfield Town

1 - 1

St Albans City

Referee : A Parker

FA Cup / 2nd Qualifying Round

Goalscorers

Kojo Ofori (90)

Simon Martin (89)

Opening squads

Andy Hall
Paul Campbell
Russell Penn
Adam Gant
Dave Allen
Kieran Woodward
Dean Green
Rudi Hall
Bryan Hammatt
Steven Velandia
John Morgan

Paul Bastock
Scott Cousins
Tom Davis
Peter Castle
Mark Graham
Matt Hann
Simon Martin
Lee Clarke
Nick Roddis
Chris Seeby
Patrick Ada

Substitutes

Niall Ritchie
Bradley Brotherton
Lee Smith
Dean Nyman
Kojo Ofori

Dean Cracknell
Thomas Beech
Ricky Perks
Tommy Williams
Anthony Allman

Substitutions

Niall Ritchie -> Dean Green (75)
Kojo Ofori -> Bryan Hammatt (77)
Bradley Brotherton -> Steven Velandia (82)

None.

Yellow cards

Dean Green (58)

Simon Martin (37)
Nick Roddis (39)
Scott Cousins (58)
Lee Clarke (79)

Red cards

Dave Allen (42)

None.

Match report | Preview

The clinical finishing which has epitomised St Albans City’s excellent form of late deserted the Saints during a gritty, almost ugly, FA Cup 2nd Round Qualifying tie at Goldsdown Road on Friday and allowed the young Enfield Town club to snatch an unlikely draw under the murky floodlights provided by Town’s landlords Brimsdown Rovers.
The Saints have painful memories from their only previous visit to Goldsdown Road, in 1991, and this match will have done little to make to make them think any better about this suburb of Enfield. To Enfield’s credit they refused to allow Colin Lippiatt’s side to settle into their normal passing game but even so City’s failure to progress at the first time of asking was down entirely to unusually wayward finishing with Lee Clarke, for once, being the main culprit.
Town’s achievement in holding the Saints is all the more praiseworthy in that they played for more than half the game with just ten men after defender Dave Allen was dismissed for yanking the pony-tailed hair of City midfielder Tom Davis.
Whilst City chances far outnumbered those of Jim Chandler’s side perhaps the clearest opening of the first half came the way of the Southern League Division One East side only for Paul Campbell to head wide when left completely unattended from a Rudi Hall cross.
By then Simon Martin had already clipped a good chance wide and put another effort against the woodwork, keeper Andy Hall had punched unconvincingly at a firm drive from Matt Hann and then blocked on the goalline a carefully placed effort from Clarke while Town captain Rudi Hall also cleared off the goalline Peter Castle’s downward header.
But City keeper Paul Bastock was far from a spectator as he dealt with several crosses and made an excellent save from Bryan Hammatt’s cleanly struck rising shot from an acute angle. The game had threatened to boil over several times and in the gloom of the woefully inadequate floodlights matters came to a head on 45 minutes when Allen clattered into Martin in full flight with a nasty high challenge. As players from both sides ran to the scene Davis, characteristically, went theatrically to the ground and Allen was dismissed for pulling his hair.
The second period went in much the same vein, frequent stoppages with several skirmishes, frustratingly poor refereeing – something of a rarity at City matches this season – and City wasting good chances. Although St Albans saw plenty of the ball Enfield again warrant credit for not going into all out defensive mode with just ten men, the speed of their attacks caused City more problems than most Conference South sides have managed in recent weeks.
Hann, enduring a personally quiet evening, set up Davis for a shot that went wastefully over, Clarke did likewise from seven yards after good work involving Martin and Graham while a fine strike from 30 yards by Davis also went a yard over the top.
It always seemed that the game possessed a sting in the tail and on 85 minutes the tail began to twitch. Clarke went on a good run across the edge of the Town penalty area before being dispossessed by Adam Gant’s superb crunching tackle that left the City striker in a crumpled heap, Enfield broke at pace and for once City were thankful to referee Parker for his inconsistency as he waved play on after Patrick Ada appeared to bundle over Kojo Ofori on the edge of the visitors penalty area.
With less than a minute of normal time remaining the breakthrough was finally made with a powerful forward run by Scott Cousins unsettling the Enfield defence. Nick Roddis was also heavily involved before Martin laid a square ball to Clarke and cut into the penalty area to receive Clarke’s neatly chipped returned pass and volleyed home his 60th goal for the Saints but first in the FA Cup.
Still though Enfield refused to accept defeat and within two minutes Campbell went on a 30 yard run past three half-hearted challenges before having his low shot palmed away by Bastock only for the unmarked Ofori to easily guide home his first goal for the Town.
City should still have won the tie at the end of six and a half minutes of added time when Martin, who ended the evening in hospital having treatment for concussion, helped on Bastock’s long kick to Clarke who got goalside of the home defence only to fail to score in a game for the first time this season when Hall saved with his left boot.

Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer.