The Saints four match unbeaten Nationwide Conference run came to a resounding end at The Shay on Saturday but this is not a result to get too despondent about as City played their part to the full in their first ever match in Yorkshire. With better fortune, and less resolute defending by Chris Wilder's boys, then City could have come home with all three points but in reality the chance of victory was lost when just one of several good chances created during the first hour was accepted.
After three Conference matches with the same starting XI manager Colin Lippiatt was forced into one change with Magnus Okuonghae stepping in for the suspended Dave Theobald. Okuonghae has been short of match practice in recent weeks having made just one full 90-minute appearance in the Saints previous 11 matches but even so he was still dominant in the air and did well on the ground although, as to be expected, there was not the excellent understanding that Gary Elphick and Theobald had displayed in recent matches. Halifax Town's lively strike force of Danny Forrest and Nathan Joynes certainly found plenty of space through the middle of the City defence and with Lee Clarke and the free-scoring Elliot Benyon causing problems at the opposite end of the pitch an entertaining affair was the outcome.
Halifax had scored 27 times in their four previous home matches although the figure is inflated by scores of seven and 14 against Tadcaster Albion and Pontefract Collieries in the West Riding County Cup. Three players scored hat tricks in the latter match but the Shaymen face expulsion from the competition after fielding an ineligible player.
Halifax almost increased that tally within 50 seconds of City setting foot on the Shay for the first time as Tom Kearney's dangerous inswinging right-footed free kick was curling just inside the far post when Paul Bastock stretched to palm it away with Forrest wastefully sending the loose ball high over the bar towards the travelling City support.
Two minutes later Damian Batt made the first of several top class tackles and interceptions when Lewis Killeen looked well placed to score from Foster's pass. Gradually St Albans City forced their way into the game and began to look every bit as potent as their hosts. City's first real threat saw Ben Walshe win a free kick that Matt Hann curled in for Elphick to head well over but two minutes later, the eighth, and the Saints were ahead.
With a superb low through ball Batt split central defenders Adam Quinn and Rob Atkinson for Benyon to close in on goal, Town keeper Craig Mawson blocked the strikers first effort but neither he nor two retreating defenders could stop Benyon's well placed follow up on the half-volley from sneaking inside the keepers left hand post for the teenagers sixth goal in nine games.
For a while St Albans threatened to take control as a hardworking midfield sought to get the two strikers away as quickly as possible. A good build up involving Okuonghae, Tom Davis, Batt and Matt Hann led to Clarke having a shot blocked with Walshe's follow up being clipped goalwards by Benyon into Mawson's arms. Moments later Walshe just over hit an audacious attempted 50-yard through ball to Clarke while Benyon collided with a small ball boy after being unceremoniously shoved off the pitch as he chased a ball to the goalline.
Town have failed to score at home just once this season and City hopes of adding to that short list evaporated on 20 minutes when another fine Kearney free kick dipped as Bastock came out to punch clear and as a result the City keeper failed to get any distance on his clearance and Atkinson was able to lash home from ten yards his first goal for the Yorkshire club.
City's response, on an increasingly chilly afternoon as the bright sunshine that had illuminated the town was replaced by menacing grey skies, was both positive and promising. Batt gained around 40 yards with three successive throw-ins down the City right and from the final one Clarke superbly turned away from his marker and cut a low cross into the box that Atkinson, currently on loan to Halifax from Barnsley, scrambled away for a corner, City's first of the match. Just before the half hour Davis's through ball was miscontrolled by Quinn allowing Clarke to nip in only for his shot to be blocked.
Chris Wilder's side wasted a good opening when Forrest's excellent crossfield pass was smartly collected by Foster who, after cutting inside Chris Seeby, was dispossessed by Okuonghae when an early return pass would have left Forrest with just Bastock to beat. The match possibly turned on 37 minutes when desperate defending denied City a second goal. Clarke appeared hemmed in between the penalty area and the touchline before producing an astounding turn that left two defender flat-footed, from his cross Ram Marwa's close range effort was blocked, as was Hann's follow up. Hann's second effort, although seemingly going narrowly wide, deflected off another defender and was nudged out of the area to Batt who fired comfortably wide.
There was a sense of apprehension that City, having scored the opening goal for the sixth successive league match, would not be ahead at the interval and, in fact, they almost fell behind as Killeen laid off a pass to Joynes whose shot with the outside of his right boot went a couple of yards over Bastock's goal.
City hit back well at the start of the second period on a now quite slippery surface following a wintry shower during the half time interval. Mawson punched away a Hann free kick and was relieved to see Davis send his volley from the falling ball over the home goal. For several minutes Halifax applied a fair amount of pressure on the City goal but chances were limited before City almost pounced in route one style as Clarke, with great skill, controlled Bastock's long kick and once again twisted between two defenders before clipping his shot just beyond the angle of bar and post.
City's fortunes took a dip on 54 minutes when Batt was pulled up for a foul after quite clearly winning the ball, it was one of several decisions by referee Peter Quinn that one side or the other felt hard done by and certainly Batt felt aggrieved enough to voice his dismay and duly collected his third yellow card of the season. Two minutes later Halifax had another let off when a fine City move, in which Batt was twice involved, saw Clarke send Benyon through only for his early low shot to take a deflection wide of the target. From the ensuing corner, curled in by Hann, Benyon made too strong a contact and headed over by several yards.
With captain Tyrone Thompson become an increasingly significant threat Halifax fought back and from his pass Atkinson set up Joynes who was only thwarted by Okuonghae's well-timed tackle. It proved to be just a short reprieve for City as on the hour Joynes won a free kick off Elphick despite working his way clear into a good position. But any frustration Halifax felt at not being allowed the advantage in a dangerous position was washed away as Kearney's near post free kick took a slight deflection as Bastock came for it, and as the keeper parried the ball Atkinson notched his second goal of the afternoon from virtually on the goalline.
After the game Town manager Wilder stressed that the result was nowhere near as clear-cut as the scoreline suggests and certainly the Saints response to this latest setback was encouraging. Seeby and Benyon combined down the left to send Hann to the goalline, the winger hit the deck after appearing to be bundled over by Mawson but no penalty was forthcoming as Marwa and Walshe kept the pressure on before the ball knocked out of the box as far as Batt whose crisp drive skimmed along the surface and just beyond the keepers right hand post.
St Albans maintained the pressure with Clarke touching a pass off to Walshe who, having previously troubled the home side by running at them, elected this time to shoot from 30 yards with the ball evading Mawson's despairing dive but also going just the wrong side of the crossbar. The prospect of a City equaliser seemed to be drawing closer to fruition but Mawson denied Clarke by finger tipping off the City captain's head an excellent cross from Hann.
Having survived St Albans best spell of an occasionally scrappy second half Halifax finished the game in an emphatic matter and ensured that the leakiest defence in the Conference suffered two more painful blows. A short free kick by Foster set up Forrest for a shot that deflected off the diving Elphick and squirmed a hairsbreadth wide of Bastock's left hand post. But Bastock, so many times City's saviour in his previous 100 games for the club felt his world cave in on 79 minutes when his normally trusted right boot, for once, let him down. Taking a free kick wide to the right of the City penalty area the Bostonian miscued the ball straight to Shane Smeltz - who played against City in the FA Trophy for AFC Wimbledon last season and had only been on the pitch for five minutes after replacing Joynes - some five yards inside the City half. As he raced towards the edge of the penalty area Smeltz neatly sidestepped Okuonghae, who had excelled to get goalside, and fired his second goal of the season low to Bastock's left.
The fourth goal, on 89 minutes, was similar in its execution and, indeed, in its origins as the move began with City carelessly conceding possession. Seeby set off with some purpose down the Saints left but spoilt his long run with a low ball into the Town penalty area that went straight to Foster who quickly sent it upfield to Smeltz. Seeing fellow substitute Chris Senior in space, the New Zealander picked out his team mate with a tremendous crossfield pass that Senior brought down and took forward before also beating Bastock low to his left from 18y yards.
At the final whistle Lippiatt ‘had words' with referee Quinn and his emotions were understandable after seeing Benyon, during added time, shown the Saints second unwarranted yellow card of the day for a completely innocuous challenge on Adam Quinn. Although difficult to believe it seemed like a case of retribution by the match official who, seconds earlier, had been shoved in the back by the City striker while running backwards on a collision course towards the St Albans player who, to save both parties from injury, had no option but to lay his hands on the match official. |
