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26.02.2013 at 19:45 Clarence Park

Attendance : 205

St Albans City

1 - 6

Gosport Borough

Referee : Mark Mellor (Hemel Hempstead) Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division

Goalscorers
None. Daniel Woodward (1)
Daniel Woodward (5)
Daniel Wooden (12)
Aaron Cook (22)
Rory Williams (47)
Adam Wilde (87)
Opening squads
Nick Jupp
Liam McGovern
Joe Bruce
Ryan Wharton
Chris Henry
Chris Seeby
James Kaloczi
Josh McLeod-Urquhart
David Keenleyside
James Comley
Brad Wadkins
Nathan Ashmore
Luke King
Brett Poate
Aaron Cook
Lee Molyneaux
Thomas Dunford
Sammy Igoe
Jamie Brown
Daniel Wooden
Rory Williams
Daniel Woodward
Substitutes
Layne Eadie
Richard Graham
Charlie Dove
Matt Taylor
Greg Ngoyi
Sam Wilson
Justin Bennett
Ellis Martin
Adam Wilde
Daniel Smith
Substitutions
Matt Taylor -> David Keenleyside (46)
Charlie Dove -> Ryan Wharton (46)
Greg Ngoyi -> James Comley (66)
Ellis Martin -> Aaron Cook (46)
Sam Wilson -> Daniel Wooden (56)
Adam Wilde -> Rory Williams (69)
Yellow cards
Chris Seeby (32)
Josh McLeod-Urquhart (45)
Chris Henry (60)
Nick Jupp (84)
Charlie Dove (86)
Jamie Brown (44)
Brett Poate (71)
Daniel Woodward (77)
Red cards
None. None
Match report
A glance at the league table suggests that St Albans City are still in the hunt for a place in the Southern League play-off positions but joint manager James Gray gave some brutally honest assessments after seeing his side crushed 6-1 at Clarence Park on Tuesday by a currently unbeatable Gosport Borough.

Making their first visit to Clarence Park, Gosport brushed aside being delayed en route to the game and were ahead within 20 seconds of the kick off.

Just to prove it was no fluke Alex Pike’s side added a second goal on five minutes. And then a third on 12, and a fourth on 22.


With less than a quarter of the game gone City were 4-0 down and Gosport had already ensured that their run of Premier Division matches without defeat had been stretched to a quite magnificent 20 games.

The win lifts the Hampshire club into the play-off positions for the first time while City are left licking their wounds.

Reflecting on game Gray said, “Everything we said before the game went out of the window within 20 seconds. By 20 minutes we were absolutely dead and buried. We couldn’t get anywhere near to them, it was boys against men.”

City made three changes from the side that performed lamely at Weymouth on Saturday with Layne Eadie, Richard Graham and Greg Ngoyi all reduced to a seat on the bench.

Teenager James Kaloczi started a home league game for the first time, while left-back Liam McGovern came in for his first start and David Keenleyside was recalled.

Having won four of their previous five games City should have been confident; instead they looked weak and uncertain. A well-drilled Gosport was in no mood to let City regain their confidence.

Barely 18 seconds were on the clock when Daniel Woodward cut in from the Boro’ left flank and from 25-yards unleashed a right-footed effort that left Nick Jupp flat-footed as it crashed into the Hatfield Road goal off the underside of the crossbar.

That miserable start was about as good as it got for Jupp who endured a night that will haunt him for some time to come.

Less than five minutes were on the clock when City carelessly conceded possession and allowed Woodward another free run towards the penalty area. This time Jupp met him on the edge of the 18-yard box but Woodward simply side-stepped the keeper and slid the ball home left-footed.

Already it was evident that there was to be no comeback for the Saints. The midfield failed to get any foothold in the game whatsoever which left an attack of questionable quality cut adrift.

Gosport, in complete contrast, simply played as a solid unit. It was not a spectacular display by any stretch of the imagination but it was most certainly an impressive, coherent team performance.

The third goal was slickest so far. Rory Williams and Woodward combined down the Boro left and when Brett Poate slid the ball towards the near post Daniel Wooden got himself between Jupp and Joe Bruce to clip it into the net.

Gosport moved into a four-goal lead on 22 minutes with City again playing a part in their own downfall.

The Saints had two opportunities to clear their lines from a Sammy Igoe corner but from the second of these Bruce slashed a wild clearance straight back out to Igoe.

The former Portsmouth player crossed deep to beyond the far post where Boro skipper Aaron Cook looped a hopeful header goalwards.

Jupp completely misjudged the flight of the ball and, believing it to be falling wide of the goal, jumped meekly underneath it. The only problem was that it dropped inside the keeper’s right-hand post. Four-nil, game over.

City made a double change at the start of the second half with Keenleyside, who struggled to get into the game, and the injured Ryan Wharton, being replaced by Matt Taylor and Charlie Dove.

Kaloczi replaced Wharton in the heart of the defence while Dove and Taylor went into the midfield.

Gosport pondered City’s changes for all of two minutes before striking for a fifth time on 47 minutes.

An attack down the Boro right ended with Wooden picking out Williams who was afforded far too much space before he sent an angled left-footed shot through Kaloczi’s legs and to the left of the bemused Jupp.

Eight minutes into the second half Woodward suffered the embarrassment of having Gosport’s first shot on target not to result in a goal.

On 71 minutes referee Mark Mellor, possibly generously, awarded City a penalty when Brad Wadkins, challenging for a Josh Urquhart cross, went down somewhat easily in the area following an alleged shove by Lee Molyneaux.

Ngoyi beat the virtually redundant Nathan Ashmore from the penalty spot for his seventh goal in ten games.

City could easily have been awarded a second spot kick when an Urquhart free kick was headed on by Kaloczi and handled by Poate who then darted across the penalty area to block Dove’s follow up.

Jupp’s miserable evening was concluded on 87 minutes when former Saint Adam Wilde struck an indirect free kick into the home penalty area.

Although Jupp later pleaded his innocence the man in the middle deemed that he had got a hand to the free kick and therefore awarded Gosport their sixth goal as the ball bounced into the York Road net.

In the first minute of added time Wadkins, after being fed by Chris Henry, had the honour of striking City’s first shot on target from open play for two games.

St Albans return to the Park on Saturday looking to end their two-match losing sequence at the expense of St Neots Town. On Tuesday St Neots defeated second in the table Hemel Hempstead Town 6-1.

Prior to the kick-off against Gosport a minute’s silence was held in memory of Phil Smyth, one of the founders of St Albans City Youth, who passed away recently at the age of 83.
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