Late goals hand Supermarine first win of the season

Southern Premier Division

Swindon Supermarine 2 St Albans City 1

ST ALBANS City boss David Howell admitted his disappointment with his side’s second half performance as the Saints slipped to a 2-1 defeat at basement side Swindon Supermarine.

Sean Shields’ third goal of the season had handed Howell’s troops a half-time lead which they looked like holding on to until 18 minutes from time when midfielder Dave Bampton guided home an equaliser from 25 yards.

The decisive goal came nine minutes later when Ashley Edenborough picked out the unmarked Max Etheridge who netted at the second time of asking to hand Swindon their first victory of the season.

Saints’ misery was compounded by a second yellow card for Tobi Jinadu, the club’s third red card in as many matches.

“It was a difficult day. I said to the lads beforehand, the Hemel game – when they were third from bottom – and the Swindon Supermarine game where they were bottom, if we just looked at that and felt we had a divine right to come here and get three points and get three points against Hemel then we were wrong,” explained Howell afterwards.

“I think in a way the 10 man situation focussed the players at home to Hemel and to a man we did the right things; we competed, we battled for the remaining hour. We’ve come here, we’ve battled and we competed and we’ve matched them for the first 45 and we’ve come here with a 1-0 lead whether some people think that was fortuitous but I think you get your rewards for putting in a hard shift or at least matching the opposition and I felt we did.

“I felt if we continued to do that second half we could have gone on and the next goal was going to be the vital goal. If it had gone 2-0 I felt we could have broken them and you could see the reasons why they were at the bottom but we didn’t and we never got going and I think anyone watching would’ve felt we were happy to hold on for 1-0.”

Howell praised Swindon for their determination after the interval but admitted his players had allowed the hosts to dominate.

He said: “For a side that were bottom, during the second half for the duration of those 45 minutes from the time they came out to start the second half to the final whistle they battled, they competed, they worked and they didn’t give us any respite whatsoever and the disappointing thing from my perspective is we didn’t match that.

“Today maybe it worked against us being 1-0 up and maybe the players didn’t focus and the players allowed Swindon to dominate us. They made it difficult for us at the back.”

Swindon Supermarine: Kauppinen; Allard, Robinson (Wood 42), Dean, Beedon (H Etheridge 33), Cole, Wells, Bampton, Edenborough, Bohane (Gray 68), M Etheridge.

Subs not used: Horgan, Morris.

City: Jupp; Pooley, Cutchey, Jinadu, Ralph; Hart, Ijaha, Haisley, Sean Shields (Bakare 53); Walker (Ehui 90), Furlong (Haule 83).

Subs not used: Sol Shields, Magwood.

Referee: Andy Newell (North Yate)

Att: 149.