City boss Castle looking forward to Kenilworth Road trip

ST ALBANS City boss Steve Castle says his side won’t go to Luton Town to make up the numbers after the Saints earned themselves a lucrative trip to Kenilworth Road in the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup.

Two goals from Spanish forward Pelayo Gomez were enough for City to triumph 2-1 over Kingstonian in Monday night’s replay after the sides had failed to find a goal at Clarence Park on Saturday. The Saints now advance to the next round where they will meet their neighbours.

“There’s a lot of magic regarding the Cup and obviously we’ve had the advantage in knowing who we’re playing in the next round in Luton who are our local neighbours,” said Castle after Monday night’s win at Kingsmeadow.

“Going up there to a big stadium, it’ll be an enjoyable time but we’ll certainly not be going up there to make up the numbers that’s for certain.”

Castle had suggested his team may have been guilty of searching for the ‘perfect goal’ following Saturday’s stalemate but Gomez certainly went some way to providing the perfect finish with his opening goal at Kingsmeadow, his first in Saints’ colours.

“He did get the perfect goal,” said the City boss of the striker’s first goal.

“(They were) two great finishes from Pelayo. Could we have finished it off earlier? Yes but I don’t think it’s a night to be critical, it’s one to enjoy.

“I’d like to think, I don’t know the ratio, but we got ourselves the best part of a dozen opportunities on Saturday and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were up to double figures in chances today so it’s going in the right direction.”

It was a goal that the Saints deserved having dominated the first half in south west London and Castle saluted his players for the performance they produced.

“Towards the end they (Kingstonian) were pushing on and it does seem to be when you’re in a cup tie and the officials seem to give some generous decisions the other way to make it a little more exciting but they’ve put a great performance in there,” said the City boss.

“I don’t think there’ll be many teams in the Ryman Premier League that will come here and win.

“(They’re a) very resilient team, they looked like they were used to winning and that was something that we had to contend with. They kept with it and we’re very happy with everything.”

Castle adjusted the shape of the City side at Kingstonian deploying Gomez as a lone striker with Robbie Martin and Moses Odubajo providing support from the flanks and the City boss revealed it was something he thought might catch out the home side.

He said: “We just changed our shape just that little bit, we wanted to try and get wingers out there.

“I thought Robbie Martin had his best game, especially in the first half, since he’s been at the club. That’s what Robbie can do and I think by his own standards he’s been disappointed with things as it stands.

“Moses has come in, it’s very hard on a lad that comes in from youth football and reserve team football, but he’s come in got to the tempo of the game very quickly and I was pleased with that.

“Pelayo up there on his own, it was a bit of a gamble but he held the ball up well and he worked his socks off.

“With all due respect to Jean-Michel Sigere, Saturday-Monday was just a little bit too much and I thought it was one we could surprise them with slightly.”