Birthday bonus for Allinson as Lucien leads rout of Worthing

Worthing, who have former City favourite Gary Elphick as their joint manager, are on a wretched run of form having lost five Premier Division matches in a row and going a goal down inside six minutes was a blow from which the Rebels were never likely to recover.

St Albans, who ought to have been in front even before Merson’s early strike, went on to boss the play throughout but the visitors from the south coast did have a couple of opportunities to embarrass the Saints before Merson added his second goal.

To their credit, and despite the game slipping away from them long before the interval, Worthing played a decent passing game, they tried to use the wide areas and in 22-year-old German-born striker Omar Bugiel, and the right-sided Australian Will Hendon, they possessed two players that caught the eye.

Saints manager Ian Allinson made three changes from the side that started at Ebbsfleet the previous week as Tom Bender (suspended), Ryan Johnson (injured) and Dipo Akinyemi made way for Ben Martin, Lucien and Merson.

With Junior Morias midway through his five-match suspension Merson was presented with an opportunity to stake a claim for a prolonged run alongside leading goalscorer Louie Theophanous.

With just five minutes played Merson maybe should have scored when Rebels goalkeeper Rikki Banks fumbled a shot from Theophanous but stretched his legs to block Merson’s point blank follow up.

The ball ricocheted across the goal but the combined presence of Sam Rents, Harvey Sparks and former Lewes ‘keeper Banks stopped Lucien from forcing the ball home.

The reprieve was all but brief though as St Albans went ahead on six minutes when Merson rose behind Elphick to meet a George Casey cross from the right and send an excellent header to the left of the diving Banks.

Matters looked increasingly ominous for the Rebels when Matt Ball won possession and sent Merson away down the right but his cutback from the goal-line was sent high over the Hatfield Road goal from eight yards out by Lucien.

One of the most enterprising moves of the half saw Reds skipper Kane Wills play the ball inside to Hendon and collect a perfect return pass that allowed him to send a crisp cross across the face of the home goal but just beyond the incoming Brannon O’Neill at the back post.

Theophanous and O’Neill both put efforts way off target when well placed before Josh Hill, who has been in good form of late, drove a deflected shot against the crossbar after Elphick and Martin had challenged for a long throw by Lee Chappell.

On the half hour Worthing created another good opening when O’Neill put Bugiel away and then scampered to the edge of the penalty area to receive a return pass and fire agonisingly close to the top of James Russell’s goal.

Three minutes later and City had left Worthing as Rebels without a cause as Merson doubled the Saints lead.

Worthing wasted two good chances to clear their lines before David Nobel swept the ball across the edge of the penalty area to Lucien.

The midfielder’s shot was blocked by Matt Boiling but Martin stepped in to touch the ball to Merson’s right and with a quick spin the striker hammered the ball to Bank’s left from ten yards out.

Hill went close to adding a third when a Chappell throw evaded Banks and Theophanous and came to the City defender at the back post but his prod from inside the six-yard box was kicked off the line by Hendon.

St Albans rested Noble for the second half and gave Andrew Iwediuno a 45 minute run out, but any thoughts of City easing up were dispelled by two goals within six minutes of the restart.

The first came following a foul by Matt Axell on Lucien, it was only the second free kick conceded by the visitors during a sensibly controlled performance by referee Ian Fissenden.

Ball clipped the free kick to beyond the back post where Martin forced a good save out of Banks but Lucien was quickly onto the rebound and hammered the ball into the ground from where it bounced high into the roof of the net.

City’s fourth goal enjoyed a slice of good fortune at the end but the approach work was outstanding.

Casey was twice involved during a rampaging run down the right before Lucien worked a neat one-two with Merson and scored with an angled drive that took a kind deflection off the unfortunate Boiling.

Bugiel, Hendon and Wills all had chances as Worthing continued to offer dogged resistance before Merson shot narrowly wide following a pass from Theophanous.

Banks required two attempts to collect a shot from Akinyemi, on for Merson, but the fifth goal duly arrived on 72 minutes when Lucien split the Rebels open with an excellent through ball that Theophanous latched onto and beat Banks with a cracking right-foot drive across the Rebels custodian.

The goal was Theophanous’s tenth in just nine games.

Scott Thomas enjoyed another productive afternoon in the City midfield and Banks had to be at his best to beat out an effort from 30 yards by the midfielder; Akinyemi sent the loose ball high out of the stadium.

Worthing continued their search for something positive to take away from their first visit to the Park in 20 years but looked on in disappointment as Bugiel’s clever lob over Russell, following Wills good through ball, dipped just wide of the goal.

With just a couple of minutes remaining St Albans secured their biggest FA Cup success for 22 years when Lucien sent Banks the wrong way from the penalty spot after Boiling had tripped Theophanous.

Lucien’s hat-trick is City’s 17th in the FA Cup but the Rebels almost took the shine off it in added time when Bugiel’s shot clipped Martin but, somehow, Russell scrambled across his goal to claw the ball away and achieve his fifth clean sheet of the season.

Russell’s save completed a perfect afternoon for Allinson at either ends of the pitch as the City boss celebrated his 59th birthday.

City gave a debut to 19-year-old Andreas Komodikis during the second half.

The midfielder spent four years with Queens Park Rangers but in the summer had trials for Bath City and Cheltenham Town, while, more recently, he has been training with Boreham Wood.

The draw for the 4th Round Qualifying of the FA Cup takes place on Monday, 3rd October. To date, St Albans have banked £12,000 from the prize fund following the wins over Dereham Town and Worthing.

City return to the National League South next Saturday for the visit of Gosport Borough to Clarence Park, kick off is at 3pm.

Prior to the kick-off against Worthing a minute’s applause was held in memory of David Wray who passed away on Tuesday.

David was a driving force behind St Albans City Youth for 30 years and was also instrumental in the development of community projects involving St Albans City Football Club.

St Albans City: J.Russell, G.Casey, M.Ball (A.Komodikis 75), L.Chappell, J.Hill, B.Martin, S.Lucien, Sc.Thomas, L.Theophanous, S.Merson (D.Akinyemi 67), D.Noble (A.Iwediuno 46), subs not used: D.Locke, R.Hoenes, K.Pope, G.Nolan.

Worthing: R.Banks, M.Boiling, S.Rents, M.Axell (J.Fagan 57), G.Elphick, R.Edwards, W.Hendon, B.O’Neill (J.Newhouse 89), O.Bugiel, K.Wills, H.Sparks (L.Brodie 73), subs not used: M.Piper, M.Waller, R.Hallard.

Referee: Ian Fissenden (Gillingham).

Att: 678.