Saints head to Dorset looking for Trophy success

ST ALBANS City find themselves back on the Trophy trail on Saturday when they make the long journey south to Dorchester Town.

The Saints slumped to the bottom of the Blue Square Bet South table on Tuesday evening without playing a game as fierce rivals Boreham Wood swapped places with Steve Castle’s side, but the Clarence Park outfit were in fine form in their last fixture comfortably dispatching Staines Town 3-1 in the previous round of the FA Trophy.

THE LOWDOWN: Town made a slow start to the new Blue Square Bet South campaign losing six and drawing two of their first eight games.

However six wins out of their last eight league outings has seen Ashley Vickers’ side shoot up the table into their current position of 14th.

THE MANAGER: Dorchester boss Ashley Vickers is no stranger to Saints fans after a two-year spell at Clarence Park that saw him net twice in 90 appearances in the blue and gold of City.

Vickers took over the managerial reigns at Avenue Stadium in November 2009 with the Dorset county-town outfit struggling at the foot of the Conference South table. Vickers and his coaching staff successfully guided the Magpies to safety last season and after a slow start to the current campaign has Town sat nicely in mid-table.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Ryan Moss is the Magpies’ leading scorer this season with seven goals to his name. The striker netted at both ends during Dorchester’s 3-1 win over Weston-super-Mare in the Third Qualifying Round.

LAST LINEUP – vs. Weston-s-Mare: Evans; Critchell, Bowles, Walker, Martin; Crittenden, Jermyn, Gleeson, Devlin; Moss, Ings.

LAST TIME: A brace from Drew Roberts helped City edge past an impressive Dorchester side when the two sides met at Clarence Park in March.

Roberts opened the scoring from the penalty spot on nine minutes only for Matt Groves to pull the visitors level in the 34th minute after the Magpies were awarded a penalty of their own. The parity lasted all of four minutes though as Roberts pounced to net what proved to be the winning goal.

TEAM NEWS: Ollie Palmer is again available to the Saints after his goalscoring debut against Staines in the previous round.

Castle also hopes to have Leyton Orient youngster Chris Benjamin available but will have to do without Adam Everitt who begins his two-game suspension following his red card at Lewes.

The Saints are still waiting for international clearance on midfielder Nick Chrysanthou and also have a couple of other targets that they hope to get on board.