St Albans 0 – 4 Dagenham & Redbridge: Football returns to Clarence Park

Day 3 of the new season, and I was already on my third match. This time, however, I was staying a little bit closer to home, travelling just over a mile to Clarence Park to watch my local team St Albans. City had seen something of a resurgence over the last few years under the joint ownership of John McGowan and Lawrence Levy, with a younger group of fans not typically associated with non-league football starting to attend on a regular basis, and the large supporter group AD43 travelling to away games in greater numbers. A couple of years ago, the Saints had won the Southern League play-off away at Chesham in front of over 1,500 St Albans fans, and attracted one of the highest average attendances at Conference South level the following season. It’s been fantastic to see the club grow from the depths they had plunged to a few years previously, and there seems to be much more of a good feeling around the place nowadays.

The stadium also feels a bit more loved nowadays, with working party weekends before pre-season allowing groups of fans to repaint parts of the stand and keeping the ground looking its best. Whilst the main stand is clearly very old-fashioned, it always looks good with a new lick of paint and keeping the ground smart is all that can really be done at this level.

St Albans had pulled off a bit of a decent pre-season opener in the form of Dagenham & Redbridge, who last season had sent an academy down to Clarence Park. There appears to be some form of link between the two clubs, not least because promising youngster Ian Gayle spent a large chunk of last season on loan at the Saints.

The Daggers were interesting opponents to watch as well, mainly because of the legend that is Jamie Cureton. Scoring 50 goals over a 3 year spell at a club may be the highlight of most players’ careers, but for Cureton his spell at Reading is only one chapter of a long and prolific career, during which he has scored over 250 league goals, including 19 last season despite being 39 years old. He has, quite simply, consistently scored goals wherever he’s been over his career, and is loved by fans of every club he’s played at. He’s now the oldest player in the football league but has still signed on for another season at Dagenham, and will most likely keep scoring – 21 more career goals will see him hit 300, and it would be great to see him hit that target before retirement.

In addition, Dagenham’s team included former Reading youth players Matt Patridge, Andre Boucard and Frankie Raymond, alongside a couple of trialists from Luton and Portsmouth. The first half featured a strong Dagenham side which closely mirrored their league starting 11, and the quality (despite there only being a two division gap) showed, with Ashley Chambers scoring twice within the opening 10 minutes. However, for the remainder of the first half it was much closer, with City seeming to adapt to the higher standard of opposition and keeping the game under control.

Half time saw the inevitable procession of change, with both sides pretty much changing their entire teams, and as a result the break was only 5 minutes long (catching plenty of people out who had gone to the clubhouse and burger van for food and drink!), the club seemingly keen to get the game finished before it got dark to save using the floodlights. Both teams utilised a lot of trialists (including several who Dagenham hadn’t even named on their team sheet) and inevitably the quality of the game declined somewhat (although it was still an entertaining spectacle). About 15 minutes into this half, Dagenham were awarded a penalty (it wasn’t a dirty challenge, but nevertheless it was a clear penalty) which trialist Bayan Fenwick converted, and with just 5 minutes to go right back Jack Connors finished well to put a gloss on the scoreline and make it 4-0.

Whilst Dagenham were definitely the better side, the score was a little harsh on St Albans, but as with every game so far this season, the game was more about gaining fitness and getting some game time for the players. I hung about for a bit as I wanted to grab a selfie with Jamie Cureton, who was more than happy to oblige. I was still home by 10, which was a nice change for a midweek game as well.

It’s back to Clarence Park on Wednesday, however, as the Saints managed a real coup in convincing Premier League side Watford to bring their first team to Clarence Park for a friendly for the second year in a row. Hopefully this should raise some substantial funds for the club and continue the newfound interest for another season!