St Albans City - 4 Nantwich Town - 2

NANTWICH Town's valiant FA cup exploits came to an end last Saturday as they went down 4-2 at St Albans City.

But the Dabbers were well in the match until the final stages after a superb performance.

The home side took the lead after 19 minutes as forward Steve Clarke tapped in on the line after a mis-kicked shot sent keeper Stuart Heaps the wrong way.

An equaliser came four minutes into the second half as Andy Gayle chased a long ball and went past the two towering centre-halfs to slot the ball past the keeper.

Clarke regained St Albans the lead on 54 minutes but it only lasted seconds as hit-man Gayle played a great one-two with Griggs and fired past the advancing keeper to send the Dabber's bench ecstatic.

Nantwich enjoyed a good spell of pressure as they forced successive corners and on 67 minutes, Gayle was put through only to suffer from a dubious off-side decision.

The game could have gone either way until Clarke grabbed his hat-trick on 75 minutes with a well taken goal. Andrews made it four with eight minutes left as he just beat Heaps to the ball inside the area and stabbed it home.

"We gave a great account of ourselves and were thrilled with the way we played," said club secretary Alan Thompson.

The Dabbers return to league action tonight, Thursday, with a home game against Prescot and on Saturday they are at home to St Helens.

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