City slip to disappointing Saints defeat

City missed the chance to move themselves further clear of the National League South bottom four this afternoon, losing by a single goal to St Albans City at Twerton Park. A defensive mix-up gifted the visitors the decisive goal early in the second half but, in truth, they should have had the game wrapped up by half-time.

Despite sitting deep in relegation trouble the Saints took the game to City from the opening whistle. Sweet should have given them the lead on 16 minutes after robbing possession from Danny Greenslade but his shot struck the foot of the post. City had shown little attacking threat but on 27 minutes they were denied a blatant penalty. A neatly worked free-kick saw Kieran Parselle head back across goal where Clarridge clearly stuck out an arm to block it behind. However, the referee incredibly missed the offence, awarding a corner and booking Jack Batten to compound his error. Four minutes later Parselle produced a stunning goalline clearance to deny Banton. The referee then showed he did know that he could award penalties, pointing to the spot after Mason went to ground under Joe Raynes’ 37th minute challenge. However, justice was done as Harvey Wiles-Richards dived to his left to keep out Banton’s penalty.

City almost started the second half perfectly when Raynes’ corner was taken off Jess Nwabueke’s head by a defender in the six-yard box. Then on 51 minutes Luke Russe’s back-pass evaded Batten to give Dausch a clear run on goal and he made no mistake with a neat finish past Wiles-Richards. With St Albans now content to sit back on their lead, City began to see more of the ball but they struggled to find a way past of the massed ranks of pink shirts. On 65 minutes a corner dropped to Parselle but his shot was blocked on the line by several defenders. This turned out to be as close as they would come to an equaliser, with the Saints keeping alive their hopes of retaining a National League South place and leaving the Romans still looking nervously over their shoulders.