Disbelief for profligate Dorchester (From Dorset Echo)

Disbelief for profligate Dorchester

11:56pm Tuesday 2nd March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

ST ALBANS 2 Roberts 8 pen, 38

Dorchester TOWN 1 Groves 34 pen

WHEN the final whistle blew on this mid-table en-counter, Dorchester midfielder Jamie Gleeson screamed with anguish and shook his head in disbelief.

His team had had enough chances to win several games in a ludicrously one-sided first half, but in the end they ran out of steam and were left frustrated by a fruitless trip to Hertfordshire.

You could almost say the result did not really matter too much, given the seemingly innocuous positions of both sides, but you certainly could not tell from this blood-and-thunder encounter.

Dorchester, showing a confidence born of a run of one defeat in nine games under caretaker-boss Ashley Vickers, hammered St Albans 3-0 in the opening game of the season and both clubs retained just half a dozen of their line-ups from that warm afternoon seven months ago.

Former St Albans defender Vickers made two changes to the Magpies’ line-up, Jamie Gleeson replacing Kyle Critchell, who was on international duty for Wales and Ryan Moss swapping a starting place with flu-hit James Coutts.

St Albans midfielder Jake Beecroft ensured visiting keeper Regan Coward was concentrating from the off when he hit a speculative 30-yard drive only a couple of feet over the bar at the York Road End just 36 seconds in.

Two minutes later, Dorchester went agonisingly close to opening the scoring when Steve Devlin’s right-wing corner rocketed around the Saints’ six-yard box before Matt Groves steered a header straight onto the bar.

Eight minutes in, Dorchester gifted the home side the lead when captain Kevin Hill flicked out a hand to deflect a ball being cleverly worked into the penalty area by James Fisher. Drew Roberts fired the penalty to Coward’s right.

The Magpies almost equalised within a minute as Groves, Nick Crittenden and Warren Byerley all failed to turn the ball over the line amid a wild scramble before Saints’ keeper Paul Bastock finally smothered it inches from the line.

Dorchester continued to dominate, wave after wave of attacks threatening the Hatfield Road end, culminating in an extraordinary sequence of corners and near-misses, and eventually, an equaliser.

Crittenden on the left and Devlin on the right sent in a series of inswinging corners that caused havoc, Hill twice being inches away from scoring.

From the fourth consecutive corner – and Dorchester’s 10th of the half – Gary Cohen shoved the rising Nathan Walker in the back.

For the second time in the game there were no complaints as referee Carl Fitch pointed to the spot, Groves sending Bastock the wrong way to make it 1-1.

Just as the Magpies must have thought they were getting their just rewards for their enterprising control of the game, they went behind three minutes later.

Left-back Neil Martin, who had had little to do for the previous half hour, missed a through-ball and could do nothing to stop the tricky Beecroft from setting up Roberts to side-foot City ahead again.

The one-way traffic continued nevertheless. Before half-time, the impressive Devlin hit the inside of a post and Moss was twice denied by City’s veteran custodian, Bastock.

Another chance went begging minutes into the second half when Crittenden’s twisting run led to Groves miskicking, and that was as close as the Magpies got.

They failed to control the game as they had in a scrappy second period, the lack of width on either flank limiting attacking outlets and chances.

The game ended on a sour note when St Albans right-back James Quilter was carried off on his 100th appearance with a suspected broken leg after a late challenge by substitute Jules Emati-Emati, a minute after the lanky striker came on for Byerley as Vickers threw on a third attacker.

St Albans City: Bastock, Fisher, Smith, Magwood, Everitt, Frater, Beecroft, Quilter (Dedman 85), Dunn (Lindie 58), Roberts, Cohen (Sullivan 74). Subs not used: Peters, Lokando.

Magpies: Coward, Jermyn, Martyn, Byerley (Emati-Emati 83), Walker, K Hill, Crittenden, Gleeson, Moss, Groves (Coutts 63), Devlin. Subs not used: Bowles, Taylor, Gilbert.