Herts Charity Cup 1st Round

St Albans City 1 Stevenage Borough 3 (AET)

ST ALBANS CITY'S return to the Herts Charity Cup after a year's absence ended in defeat last Friday, as a team not lacking in first team hopefuls, disintegrated against the highly promising and polished youngsters to have progressed through Stevenage Borough's EFCO youth development scheme.

City fielded five players - Andy Futcher, Richard Goddard, Richard Evans, Joe Lyons and Ryan Moran - believed to be very much a part of Kevin Mudd's first team squad but it was Borough's youngsters, many of whom played in the Stevenage Reserve side which beat City twice in three Capital matches last season, who caught the eye at an almost deserted Clarence Park.

City were thankful to goalkeeper Lee Clark for going in level at the interval as twice he saved at the feet of the impressive Paul Armstrong. Boro' keeper James Hassell also demonstrated his agility when stretching high to tip over Fabio Valenti's well placed free-kick while City's best move of the half ended with Evans striking an upright after exchanging passes with Constantine.

Having been on the back foot for much of the opening half, City started the second period more brightly and went ahead on 62 minutes with a well controlled low 20-yard volley from Moran after a Futcher free-kick had been cleared. The lead was held until ten minutes from time when a near-post Borough corner glanced off the head of a City defender and was put into the York Road net by the diving Armstrong.

Moran went close to restoring City's advantage at the start of extra time following a cross from Chris Jones but thereafter the added 30 minutes saw City lose control of the game, their composure and ultimately the tie. Boro' went ahead on 111 minutes with a possibly fortuitous goal from left back Mark Duckett whose misdirected cross looped over Clark. There was no disputing the quality of the third Stevenage goal in the final minute, as Armstrong slipped the ball out to Robert Miller and then raced into the middle to calmly put away the return.

St Albans City: Clark, Futcher, Nevin, K.Randall (Coughlan 95), Goddard, Evans, Lyons, Moran, Constantine (Kanhutu 60, Olaniran 90), Valenti, Jones, subs, Gidden, Whitmore.