By Tonci Prusac 

St Albans squandered the perfect opportunity to jump into outright fourth spot on the NPL1 ladder, after being held to a 1-1 draw at home against lowly Springvale White Eagles on Sunday afternoon. 

Twenty minutes prior to kick-off, a torrential downpour hit Churchill Reserve, turning the already heavy pitch into a quagmire. 

It was the visitors who created the opening chance, after earning the first corner of the game in the 6th minute. 

Just two minutes later, the Saints had their first scoring opportunity of the contest, but captain Ryan McGuffie's effort sailed well over the upright.

In the 12th minute, however, the opening half's best player created one of the few clear cut scoring chances, which resulted in the first goal of the afternoon.

St Albans striker Yusuf Yusuf created enough space inside the box to twist one way, turn the other and then shoot low and hard.  

The new recruit from NPL side Heidelberg saw his magnificent strike evade two opposition players and slam into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

In a generally scrappy and slow paced opening half, the score remained locked at 1-0, right up until the 44^th minute when the visitors equalised through a Milan Jovanovic strike.

Joshua Bowen fed Dejan Erakovic with a neat pass, before the tall attacker slalomed through to the byline and cut the ball back to the far post. 

An unmarked Jovanovic was on hand to execute an easy tap-in, which ensured the punters, who had braved the Arctic conditions, were in for an enthralling second half contest. 

Springvale came out in the second half with all guns blazing as the Eagles sensed an upset in the cold winter’s air.

In the 58^th minute, the home side was lucky not to find itself a man down, when Christopher Ross brought down ‘man-of-the-match’ Vojo Milojevic in a crude tackle from behind, just outside the box. 

Ross managed to escape with only a caution.

It was St Albans, however, who were presented with a gilt edged opportunity to take all three points in the 72^nd minute.

After the Saints’ best player, Ross Harvey, was felled in the box, striker Stuart Nicholson stepped up to take the spot kick. 

Unfortunately for the home side, his shot hit the upright and away to safety as the Springvale players let out a collective sigh of relief.

In the final 20 minutes, the Saints desperately pressed forward in search of the winner, but the White Eagles defence held firm and successfully saw out the match with the scores locked at 1-1.    

After the game, St Albans coach Tony Patterson was a visibly dejected man, lamenting the one that had got away.

“I’m very, very disappointed with today’s performance,” Paterson said.

“Put simply, we didn’t win the battles out there. Today we just did not play as a collective unit. In my opinion, only four or five players turned up take part in the contest.

“Credit to Springvale. They are a solid unit, well organized, but we just didn’t compete the way we should have. I’m very disappointed overall.”

His Springvale counterpart, Zed Mihajlovic, was a little more satisfied to have come away from Churchill Reserve with a point.

“We knew we were going to be under the pump, considering the experienced team we were up against, as well as the conditions out there,” Mihajlovic said. 

“But we weathered the storm and we really started to play after we conceded the goal, early in the game.

“We like to see what we are up against in the first five minutes of any game, but they put us under pressure from the outset. We came back strongly and put in a great effort in the last 30 minutes of the first half.

“In the end, we’re happy with the point. I guess you have to be. But it was a game of ‘what ifs’ at the end of the day." 

In Round 15 action next week, Springvale is at home to Richmond on Saturday, while the Saints take on second placed Bulleen in a tough away assignment on Monday night.

MATCH DETAILS: 

St Albans Saints 1 (Yusuf 12’) v Springvale White Eagles 1 (M. Jovanovic 44’) (HT: 1-1) at Churchill Reserve

St. Albans Saints: 1 Stuart WEBSTER, 17 Adam NAKIC (16 Ajak PANEK 61’), 4 Barry DEVLIN, 5 Felix ROSMAN, 14 Christopher ROSS, 2 Ryan McGUFFIE, 15 Konrad DOBRASZIEWICZ, 8 Ross HARVEY, 10 Stuart NICHOLSON, 11 Yusuf Yusuf (13 Nicholas CULLEN 76’), 9 Sean McIlroy.

Subs unused: 21 Tonio BARESIC, 18 Tedros YABIO, 3 Giori NICESKI.

Yellow cards: NAKIC 56’, ROSS 58’, Harvey 70’, ROSMAN 85’

Red cards: None

Springvale White Eagles: 30 Anthony CASSET, 18 Ryan DON PAUL, 3 Joey CALDERONE, 4 Simo JOVANOVIC, 6 Slavisa SARIC, 8 Marcus HOLMES, 10 Stojan MILOJEVIC (9 Joel BOWEN 62’), 19 Vojo MILOJEVIC, 21 Dejan ERAKOVIC (5 Scott MILLAR 90’), 14 Joshua BOWEN, 22 Milan JOVANOVIC.

Subs unused: 12 Bojan TOMIC, 40 Michael MILLAR.

Yellow cards: M. JOVANOVIC 55’.

Red cards: None 

Image Credit: Roberto Filitti