St Albans City 3, Aveley 0

AVELEY suffered another significant defeat in Tuesday's relegation battle at St Albanas that leaves them a mountain to climb.

The chastening nature of the defeat against one of their rivals in the Vanarama National League South relegation zone left manager Danny Scopes expressing his disappointment at the inability of his side to dig deep.

The Saints started the quicker of the two sides with some good spells of possession and almost found the net five minutes in with a Gio Rasulo shot that went just over the bar from 20 yards out.

Aveley fashioned their own chance in the 13th minute as newcomer Jack McDowell headed goalwards after getting on the end of a free kick but home keeper Michael Johnson produced a good stop.

The deadlock was broken in the 20th minute when the ball was lost by Millers' Alfie Lewis and broke to Saints' James Sweet. His excellent cross from the right wing found the head of Shaun Jeffers, who powered it into the top left corner of the net.

And just four minutes elapsed between that and a sec0ond home goal, Jeffers converting from the penalty spot after and hard-drilled cross struck the hands of an Aveley defender.

The best efforts from Millers originated from the energy of Manny Ogunrinde but they rarely threated and goal and Saints were comfortable as they held onto their lead into the break.

A similar pattern continued at the start of the second half, with the Saints looking the more dangerous of the two sides.

Four minutes into the half, Jeffers almost completed his hat trick, but his succession of shots were all blocked by the Aveley defence, resulting in a corner, which came to nothing.

Aveley began to grow into the game but lacked any real threat on Johnson's goal relying mainly on crosses and long balls.

However, around 70 minutes subs David Kawa and Harry Beadle linked up with Kawa forcing a goal bound effort after getting on the end of his teammate's cross but Johnson was equal to the task.

With 10 minutes left Millers had an escape when Harrison Smith failed to connect with the goal at his mercy but the visitors task became all but impossible a minute later when Hamza Semakula was shown a second yellow card for a cynical pull of the shirt on Brandon Mason, who was away down the left wing.

Saints made full use of the extra man and in the 90th minute, second-half substitute Reuben Wyatt picked up the ball in the Aveley half and drove inside towards the penalty area before firing a curling strike into the top right-hand corner of the net,

With the win Saints moved just a point away from safety while the point earned in a 1-1 draw at Truro lifted Weymouth level on points with Millers, but Aveley's inferior goal difference means they are now bottom.

Manager Danny Scopes pulled no punches in his post match interview, saying: "I never expect teams that I manage and coach to be so easy to beat. We haven't been good enough consistently. 

"I'm always going to be disappointed to lose, and the problem is I've said that too much this season.

"We have to keep swinging and going and try to put it right but we have a lot of work to do." 

Danny Scopes' post match comments:-

Watch the match highlights:-

Millers are back in action at Parkside on Saturday when they play host to Hampton and Richmond Borough, who have slipped into mid-table after early season challenges at the top of the table.