GALLERY: Saints hit six past Enfield to progress in FA Cup
St Albans City and Enfield Town shake hands prior to their FA Cup tie. - Credit: Archant
St Albans City are through to the second qualifying round of the FA Cup after beating Enfield Town 6-1 at Clarence Park.
A Mark Nwokeji hat-trick plus a John Frendo single, his sixth goal in three games, a cool finish from Aston Goss and a thunderbolt from Howard Hall, capping off a brilliant performance from the full back, earned City a spot in the draw for round two.
Despite being at the same level in the football pyramid, Saints were by far the better side on the day and took a 2-0 lead into half time. The first came via Nwokeji before Frendo added a second in the 39th minute and it was a goal of the utmost class. A lofted through ball from James Comley was controlled by the striker while he outmuscled the defender before rounding the goalkeeper and tapping the ball in.
The tie was all but over seven minutes into the second half as Goss and Nwokeji doubled the lead. Goss collected a superb ball through from Frendo of the left, cut inside and slid the ball across the goalkeeper into the bottom corner to make it three before Nwokeji fired in from the edge of the box.
A standing ovation was observed for Frendo when he made way for Elliot Bailey. The young Saint was soon joined by other youth products James Kalozi, who replaced Ben Martin and had a fantastic cameo at the back, and Matt Taylor, who almost scored with his first touch but it whistled past the post.
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Taylor should have made it 5-0 but his shot from six yards was saved. The fifth wasn’t long coming though, and it was Nwokeji who provided the finish.
Enfield pulled a goal back from a goalmouth scramble, much to the disapproval of Paul Bastock, who picked up his August Player of the Month award before the game, but the five-goal cushion was soon restored by Hall.
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Goss swept a ball out to Chris Watters on the right, who touched it inside to Hall on the underlap. Hall set himself up and unleashed an unstoppable drive from 25 yards that hit the roof of the net to seal an emphatic 6-1 win.
