Late Saints strike leaves City stunned

City suffered a fourth successive league defeat this afternoon at St Albans City in the cruellest manner possible. Having found themselves two goals down midway through the first half, goals from Cody Cooke and Alex Fletcher drew them level before the interval. And with five minutes left it looked as if the comeback would be complete when City were awarded a penalty for handball. However, Cooke fired the spot kick wide and with the clock just coming up to the 90 minute mark the Saints bundled home a winning goal from close range to stun the Romans. As so often this season City started brightly but found themselves behind from the home side’s first real attack. A defence splitting through ball sent Weiss clear and he unselfishly squared the ball to give Green a tap in. And on 21 minutes it got worse for City when Weiss’ shot was blocked by Ryan Clarke only the ball to rebound off Dan Ball into the net. City got themselves back in the game in the 40th minute when Jordan Dyer crossed for Cooke to head home his 16th goal of the season. And deep in first half stoppage time a long throw by Joe Raynes dropped for Fletcher to fire City level from six yards out. Both sides saw chances come and go after the break but when Clark was adjudged to have handled another Raynes long throw in the 84th minute it was City who looked set to grab a much needed win. Instead, five minutes after Cooke’s effort ended his perfect penalty record with City, great work on the left by Jones saw his low cross turned home by Goddard, and it was the home side celebrating.