A look ahead to this weekend’s big match

St Albans City v Bedford Town

Saturday, January 28 – KO 3pm

Manager: Ady Hall

Last season: 17th

Top scorer this year: Drew Roberts (27)

FORMER St Albans City striker Drew Roberts will make his first return to Clarence Park since leaving the Saints when Bedford Town visit on Saturday.

Roberts left the Saints midway through last season and has been in prolific goalscoring form for Bedford this season but Saints go into the contest on the back of three straight wins and with just one defeat in their last six outings.

Season so far

It is the goals of Roberts that have kept Bedford Town away from trouble at the foot of the Southern Premier Division table.

The ex-Saint has notched 27 goals already this term and was the subject of a seven-day approach from David Howell before Christmas. Roberts has three hat-trick to his name so far including scoring all four goals as Bedford won 4-0 at Leamington.

Ady Hall’s side had made a disastrous start to the season losing their first three games, the last in that sequence a 7-1 thrashing at Brackley Town.

The Eagles first win of the season came at home to Barwell (3-2) and was swiftly followed by a 2-0 triumph at Weymouth.

Since then the Bedfordshire outfit’s form has been inconsistent with their best run of results coming at the turn of the year when they won four straight games prior to a 1-0 defeat at Arlesey Town in their last outing.

Team vs Arlesey: Brown, Yorke, James, Darby, Hoyte �, Thorne, Price, Beech, Hatch, Roberts, Damon.

We’ve Met Before – Bedford Town 2 St Albans City 2 (October 11, 2011)

These two sides provided an action-packed 90 minutes when they met at the New Eyrie back in Oxtober.

First half strikes from Sakho Bakare and Ryan Watts had City on course for victory but former Saint Drew Roberts scored twice in as many minutes to snatch a point for the home side late on.

Team news

Aaron Lansiquot staked a claim for a place in the starting XI with a hat-trick in the Reserves midweek Herts Intermediate Cup win over Kimpton Rovers, a game that saw long term absentee James Bent also find the target.