By Alen Delic (@AlenDelic)

PHOTO: Graeme Furlong

St Albans has taken a valuable three points against a strong Box Hill United side on a chilly Sunday afternoon at Churchill Reserve.

It took more than an hour for Trent Waterson to come up with the breakthrough in a tight game between the two combatants.

The first real chance of the game went to Box Hill United after 12 minutes, as Caleb Ludlow held up the ball long enough in midfield to release Lucas Johns.

Johns squeezed a shot away despite pressure from the St Albans defence, with his shot taking a touch off of a defender as it snuck past Saints goalkeeper Stuart Webster and dribbled into the post, before Webster cleaned up.

Soon after, momentum swung towards the hosts.

St Albans striker Barry Devlin should’ve had the first after 27 minutes with a volley inside the six yard box, but he couldn’t connect well enough and the shot was saved well by Connell.

He had another great chance just minutes later after getting the end of a cheeky chipped through ball from the top of the box. This time he connected well, but it took a great save by Connell to deny him.

The final 15 minutes of the half were characterized by an inability for either side to make their passes stick.

Despite that, St Albans almost had a sucker punch on the stroke of half time.

A brilliant deep cross by substitute Sweeney found Waterson at the far post, who nodded back across goal to Devlin who made no mistake this time, but the referee ruled it offside.

The breakthrough finally came after 62 minutes when Ross Harvey drove in a brilliant free kick from more than 40 yards that found the head of an on-running Waterson, who calmly nodded it under a helpless Connell.

The visitors almost had an instant response.

A brilliant cross-field ball found Goldberg who held the ball up long enough to find an avenue to square it up into the centre and in front of an open goal, but no one could get a foot on it and direct it in.

Box Hill had a final chance to level it up at the 90^th minute again through a Goldberg square pass.

This time, it fell beautifully for Joey Calderone who connected well, and it seemed destined for the top corner, but for a brilliant diving save at full stretch from Webster to tip the ball over the bar.

The hosts had one more chance deep in injury time to get a second goal and put the game beyond doubt.

Devlin capitalised on an error by the Box Hill defence and played through Sweeney who had the ball stuck at his feet.

When St Albans finally got a shot off, Connell produced a brilliant parry to push the ball pack into play, only for it to ball back to Devlin who got a shot off that seemed destined for the net, but a last ditch slide from a Box Hill defender kept the ball out of the net.

There were shouts for handball, but in the end it didn’t make a difference as St Albans ran out 1-0 winners.

Match details

St Albans Saints 1 (Waterson 62’) defeated Box Hill United 0 at Churchill Reserve, St Albans

St Albans: 1. Stuart WEBSTER, 2. Ryan McGUFFIE, 3. Nanna-Yaw OUTO-ACHEAMPONG, 4. Nicholas SARBIN, 5. Tedros YABIO, 7. Trent WATERSON, 8. Ross HARVEY, 9. Barry DEVLIN, 11. Nick SCERRI (23. Daniel SWEENEY 45’), 12. Damien PETERS (15. Konrad DOBRASZKIEWICZ 71’), 13. Anthony BORAS

Substitutes: 14. Kristian BORAS, 18. Ben SHAPER, 21. John SCOLLO

Yellow card(s): Boras 58’, Harvey 84’

Red card(s): None

Box Hill United: 1. Alex CONNELL, 5. Alex SCHROEN, 11. Sebastian BARRERO, 18. Joey CALDERONE, 8. Caleb LUDLOW, 23. Stanislav GOLDBERG, 24. Shaun PETERSON (17. Aaron PORCARO 53’), 21. Travis CHALK-HATTON, 14. Lucas JOHNS (20. George KALAS 80’), 10. Franc CARAFA (15. Jerome COSTANZA 65’), 4. Christian LAR

Substitutes: 35. Taylor DAVIDSON, 2. Nikola SURDOSKI

Yellow card(s): None

Red card(s): None