St Albans Saints have relied on their fast start to overcome a determined Kingston City 3-1 at The Grange Reserve on Monday night.
An early brace to Juso Julardzija sett the tone for the match, before Brodie Paterson and Kemal Curran got one a piece for the Saints and Kingston respectively.
The match was free flowing at both ends, with both sides conjuring up early chances on goal.
Paterson came close to opening the scoring within the first few minutes when his free kick from the edge of the box hit the cross bar on its way behind.
However, the strong away support didn’t have to wait long to celebrate as Julardzija struck for the first of two goals.
His 10th minute header was powered into the near post after he was found him unmarked in the box by a beautifully weighted cross from Sean Mcilroy.
Following their opener, the Saints were put under pressure by Kingston who had the hosts camped in their own end of the park for an extended spell, and only a pair of fantastic saves from Stjepan Gal kept the score line from changing.
The first save was from a pile driver by Andrew Doig that forced a stunning diving save from the Saints custodian, who then dealt with another long-range strike, tipping the goal bound shot up and over the bar.
City then went even closer, with Arthur Papadopoulos hitting the crossbar after benefitting from some good forward pressure by Gino Defeo.
Defeo won his own ball then played a one two from the right wing, setting up Papadopoulos for the chance to equalise from the edge of the box.
However, his curling effort somehow stayed out of the far side of the net, with the ball just failing to dip in time.
Having survived the scare, St Albans then doubled their lead, as Julardziji recorded his second of the match.
Some bulldog like determination set up the 36th minute goal as the Saints’ forward bullied two defenders on the right wing before striking the ball into George Maliaras in the Kingston goal.
The shot deflected back to the striker who dispatched his shot clinically on the second time of asking.
The second half continued in the same fashion as the first, as the Saints further extended their lead ten minutes after the break.
Paterson showed his smarts in the box as he followed in a strike from Martin Mason that was pushed towards the edge of the 18-yard box by the Kingston shot stopper.
The diminutive midfielder then finished with vigour, as the keeper lay helpless on the ground.
With the game quickly running away from Kingston it was substitute Curran who gave the home side hope of getting back into the contest.
His 59th minute strike was the result of a fantastic reflex save from man-of-the-match Gal that saw the ball deflect off a defender, and into the path of Curran who was on hand to bundle the ball home.
Whilst the game promised to go on and reach a memorable climax, it quickly went the way of a Sunday league match, with sloppy play and errors becoming all too common.
Kingston did have a chance late to make pull another goal back and make the game interesting when Captain Peter Lord met an inch perfect corner, but he only managed to hit the crossbar much to City’s frustration.
The resultant bounce forced a goal line scramble as the ball somehow managed to evade crossing the white line.
Whilst Kingston did have the better of the second half chances, they never truly looked like staging a comeback and succumbed to a 3-1 loss at home.
Match Details
FT: Kingston City 1 (Curran 59′) defeated by St Albans Saints 3 (Julardzija 10′ 36′, Paterson 55′)
HT: Kingston City 0 St Albans Saints 2
Kingston City: 13. George Maliaras (GK) 2. Peter Lord 3. Stacy Tsalkos 4. James Karvelis (5. Kemal Curran 36’) 7. Velibor Mitrovic 11. George Stavridis 14. Arthur Papadopoulos 15. Gino Defeo (10. John Maclean 59’) 16. Nick Stamatiou 19. Andrew Doig (17. Deniz Sabanovski 64’) 20. Michael Gerace
Unused Sub(s): 1. Sero Sadikovski 8. Anthony Stavridis
Yellow Card(s): Doig 53’ Curan 66’
Red Card(s): Nil
St Albans Saints: 1. Stjepan Gal (GK) 2. Ryan McGuffie 4. Barry Devlin 5. Felix Rosman 6. Martin Mason (14. Christopher Ross 90’) 7. Juso Julardzija (12. Liam Francis 82’) 8. Craig Sweeney 9. Sean Mcilroy 11. Ryan Baldacchino (13. Nicholas Cullen 17’) 10. Brodie Paterson 17. Adam Nakic
Unused Sub(s): 15. Konrad Dobraszkiewicz 21. Tonio Baresic-Nikic
Yellow Card(s): Sweeney 28’ Devlin 88’
Red Card(s): Nil