St Albans City 3, Hampton 1
Hampton had a good first half against St Albans in their visit to Clarence Park in 13 years. Darren Forte came in for the injured Matthew Miller to start his first game for Hampton while at the other end of the scale Steve Cheshire was making his 450th start for the Beavers.
On a beautifully manicured pitch Hampton were a match for St Albans in the first half. Hampton took the lead after 24 minutes with a well executed move that flowed from one end to the other. Nick Burton started the move with a headed clearance to Cheshire, the ball was swiftly passed to Robin Lewis and thence to the feet of Jason Brown.
Brown knocked it into space for Hippolyte to run on to, a little shimmy past a defender and then a well- directed shot past Lomas in the St Albans goal and it was 1-0 to the Beavers.
Hippolyte also brought out a good save from Lomas towards the end of the half; what a difference it might have made to the result if that had gone in.
The second half saw Hampton come under a great deal of pressure and one or two players started to go down with knocks. Ian Savage put the ball out of play to allow Forte to have treatment in the 51st minute, St Albans declined to throw the ball back to Hampton but instead elected to throw it into the path of their second substitute, Mark Kane, who volleyed it past Hampton's Mark Russell - welcome to the sporting Premier Division!
Steve Croxford picked up an injury but elected to carry on. However, with Forte down again a few minutes later St Albans scored their second with a well flighted corner that was headed home by Saints' centre forward Steve Clark. By now Hampton were being pushed back and Russell had to bring out several excellent saves to keep Hampton in the game: a flying catch from Clarke and a diving punch away from Kane saved two more goals.
Finally St Albans scored their third with just under six minutes left, Clarke stooping in front of Dave Stephenson to head home a low-hit free-kick.
Hampton are certainly going to find the going tougher than the last few seasons but the potential is there and there is more than enough time to turn things around.
Hampton team: M Russell; W Drew, N Burton, S Croxford, S Cheshire, D Stephenson, J Brown (J Beer, 60 mins), I Savage, J Hippolyte, R Lewis (T Quinton, 69 mins), D Forte (A Gray, 55 mins).
Hampton Reserves 5
Carshalton Athletic Res 2
The Beavers were first out of the blocks when Francis Vines headed down for Prince Adu-Appiah to slot in after just five minutes. Barely 10 minutes later the lead was increased when Hampton were awarded a penalty after Smith had handled. Vines' kick was saved by Hotchkiss but he was quick to react and blasted the rebound into the roof of the net. After 35 minutes Paul Reed, put through by Chris Evans, finished expertly for a three-goal lead. However, bad defending at a corner allowed Edwards to slam the ball in shortly before the break to reduce the arrears.
Ricki Webb had to be at his best early in the second half as the visitors came out fighting but he was beaten when Edwards got his second after his initial shot was saved. It looked like last week's game at Horsham all over again! Carshalton continued to press but their spirit was broken after 78 minutes when a fine move involving Vines and substitute Ernie Arhin put Reed away for the fourth. Arhin tormented Carshalton all the time he was on and could have scored a couple himself near the end.
The final score came after 85 minutes, Evans was allowed to run into the box, his shot was saved and Vines was on hand to tap in.
Team: Ricky Webb, Ollie Tucker, Kevin Duffell, Joel Allen (Ben Lampard 83 mins), Michael Branch (Pak-Wai Wan 66 mins), Paul Reed, Craig Reilly, Chris Evans, Prince Adu-Appiah (Ernie Arhin 70 mins), Francis Vines, Tony Jones.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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