Haworth dismissal makes City defeat harder to take Saints striker pushed referee's assistant

after Walton and Hersham hit winning goal MISSED chances proved costly for struggling St Albans City at Stompond Lane on Saturday as the Saints slithered to a third consecutive Ryman League defeat.

They also suffered the indignity of seeing striker Rob Haworth dismissed for the second time this season after shoving a referee's assistant moments after the only goal of a scrappy game.

Haworth's third premature exit since April, City's fifth in a season of poor results and occasional ill-discipline, is likely to land the bustling forward with a hefty club fine and an extended lay-off courtesy of the FA.

Although there can be no question over his latest sending off it was not difficult to have some sympathy for the player who pushed a linesman in the chest after the man in black simply refused to step away from the byline and denied him the opportunity of putting in a legitimate tackle for the ball.

That moment of passion aside this was a generally low-key affair which the Saints certainly controlled in regards of possession but seldom forced keeper Delroy Preddie into a worthwhile save.

Manager Jimmy Neighbour's decision to drop leading goalscorer Steve Clark was understandable - though others can clearly count themselves lucky to still be playing - but the decision not to bring Clark on when Haworth went off was curious and certainly raises questions over the long-term future of the striker who has scored 240 goals in 361 games and will be 34 in February.

City made the first promising impression on the game with Jon Daly heading wide a Justin Gentle corner and on 18 minutes a clever ball from Barry Blackman sent Gentle away only for the winger's chip over Preddie to bounce onto an upright and appear to strike former City defender Erskine Smart's arm before being cleared.

Walton and Hersham's first serious threat to the City goal came on 27 minutes and ended with Ken Addai making a spectacular one-handed save low to his left after an Andy Sayer shot deflected off Matt Elverson.

Sad to say that was pretty much where the first-half entertainment finished.

Twelve minutes after the restart Paul Adolphe, Gentle, Paul Turner and Blackman were all involved in a flowing move which culminated in Daly again failing to locate the target with a header, a fate which soon befell Haworth from an inviting cross.

Walton went close when Sayer headed wide and ten minutes from time Sayer was on hand to lay off a free-kick into the penalty area for Garfield Blackman to claim the deciding goal.

A minute later, Haworth demonstrated City's frustration at another blank day in front of goal as Saints slumped to 16th in the Premier Division table, just two points better off than this Saturday's visitors to Clarence Park, Hitchin Town.

Walton and Hersham: Preddie; Dowson, Smart, M Pearson, Johnson, J Pearson, Elverson, Moss, Blackman, Sayer, Holloway. Substitutes: Powell, Ray and Alexander not used.

St Albans City:Addai; Polston, Risley, Evans, Mudd, Daly, Adolphe, Turner, Haworth, Blackman, Gentle. Substitutes: Foley for Adolphe after 89 minutes, Clark and Akinbolu not used.

Referee: RYMAN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

Pld W D L F A Pts

Dagenham & R 22 14 4 4 43 21 46

Sutton United 21 13 5 3 44 23 44

Kingstonian 22 10 9 3 37 23 39

Boreham Wood 19 10 4 5 40 23 34

Harrow Borough 20 10 2 8 31 30 32

Purfleet 21 8 7 6 30 29 31

Aylesbury 22 9 3 10 29 35 30

Walton & H 21 9 3 9 26 34 30

Heybridge 18 9 2 7 34 29 29

Hendon 20 8 5 7 27 29 29

Enfield 23 8 5 10 33 38 29

Bromley 20 7 7 6 28 24 28

Carshalton 17 7 6 4 30 27 27

B Stortford 23 8 1 14 30 40 25

Dulwich 21 6 6 9 32 33 24

ST ALBANS 18 7 3 8 21 23 24

Hitchin 20 5 7 8 26 26 22

Chesham 21 5 6 10 37 39 21

Gravesend & N 20 6 2 12 32 40 20

Basingstoke 15 5 4 6 17 27 19

Yeading 21 4 6 11 23 32 18

Oxford City 21 4 5 12 18 44 17

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