Brown at his best as Bedford victorious
Southern Premier League
St Albans 1 Bedford Town 2
AN assured display in goal by Ian Brown helped Bedford claim the points in a 2-1 win at St Albans City on Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles’ guardian produced some fine saves, especially in the second half when the hosts put Bedford on the back foot in their search for an equaliser.
In the opening forays, the game had been frantic with neither side managing to test the respective keepers.
On 21 minutes though, the deadlock was broken when Aaron James, Ollie Thorne and James Hatch combined to thread the ball through the defence into the path of Josh Beech and he slotted past Nick Jupp for his first of the season.
Brown made the first of his saves just three minutes after the goal when Narada Bernard’s cross was missed by Sakho Bakare and Simon Martin before Guyana international, Howard Newton dashed in at the far post with a right footed volley that the Eagles keeper was equal to.
With 10 minutes of the half remaining Gareth Price almost took advantage of some poor communication between Bernard and Cedric Ngakam as he nipped in but shot into the side-netting.
Five minutes before the break Brown had to be alert again, tipping over Bernard’s curling 30-yard shot.
St Albans came out for the second half intent on regaining parity and Ryan Watts blasted over just two minutes in.
Newton, racing into the area from the right elected to cross instead of having a go himself, but although the pass managed to evade Brown the combination of Jon Darby and Beech cleared the ball away.
There was respite for the Eagles, in the 54th minute, when Max York’s free kick was met by Thorne’s head, but Jupp denied the goal.
The home side kept pressing and just before the hour Brown held on to a low and stinging shot from Bakare, while he then stopped Bakare’s low header.
There was nothing the visiting keeper could do to stop the eventual equaliser, in the 74th minute though as Chris Seeby’s free kick fell to James Gray and he lashed the ball into the net.
The equaliser had been coming for some time but Bedford dug their heels in and six minutes later scored the winner.
Hatch raced on to a pass down the right flank, crossing into the home area to Drew Roberts who punished the St Albans defence for their failure to pick him up, by directing the ball into the top left hand corner of the net.
Bedford may have increased their lead late on as Price released Roberts, but this time the striker hit his effort wide.
A minute later Roberts evaded the St Albans defence once and squared the ball into the area, but Thorne couldn’t get the necessary touch and the ball went harmlessly off for a goal kick.
Bedford Town: Ian Brown, Max York, Aaron James, Jon Darby, Gavin Hoyte (c), Ollie Thorne, Gareth Price, Josh Beech, James Hatch, Drew Roberts, Tom Damon (Callum Lewis 86).
Subs not used: Seb Simpson, Paul Cooper, Jermaine Ivy, Michael Kavanagh.
St Albans City: Nick Jupp, Chris Seeby, Narada Bernard (Chris Henry 58), David Ijaha, James Gray (c), Cedric Ngakam, Howard Newton (Aaron Lansiquot 89), Micah Hyde, Sakho Bakare (Paul Furlong 63), Simon Martin, Ryan Watts.
Subs not used: Matt Cutchey, Danny McGonigle.
Star Man: Ian Brown.
Attendance: 463.
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Weather for Bedford
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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