Slick Saints put a dent in Town’s play-off bid
Two second-half goals send Crusaders crashing to damaging defeat
HUNGERFORD Town’s play-off aspirations suffered a blow as they went down 2-0 to St Albans City at Bulpit Lane on Saturday, writes Ciaran Morrison.
Second-half goals from Bayley Brown and Callum Adebiyi were enough to give Saints all three points in this tightly contested National League South affair.
The Crusaders went into the game on the back of two tremendous away wins, but it was St Albans who created the best opportunities of the first half.
Hungerford, though, also had their moments from two Curtis Angell long throws.
Kyle Bailey flicked a header narrowly over at the near post before a Jake Evans strike was saved comfortably by Saints keeper Michael Johnson.
Saints worked their way into the match, but Matt Berry-Hargreaves was alert with some astute defending to deny Mitchell Weiss.
Town keeper Luke Cairney also made a superb stop to deny Shaun Jeffers before making a save down low to gather Adebiyi’s shot.
Top scorer Ryan Seager’s first sight of goal came two minutes into the second half.
He tried to use the bounce of the ball to lift it over Johnson, but the effort also went over the crossbar.
Brown eventually broke the deadlock in spectacular fashion with his long range strike finding the top corner.
Crusaders’ Sol Wanjau-Smith had a strong
penalty shout waved away when he looked to have been clumsily bundled over in the box.
But with less than 15 minutes remaining Saints doubled their advantage when David Noble’s free kick from the left wing was touched home by Adebiyi.
Tyler’s cross created the Crusaders’ best chance of the half, but Wanjau-Smith saw his header fly over from close range.
Hungerford have a busy bank holiday weekend with a trip to Oxford City tomorrow (Good Friday) before they host Bath City on Monday.