The trip to St Albans saw what had been a fairly dry day suddenly turn into an extremely wet one, prompting comments of 'Isn't this familiar', referring to when the match on New Years Day was called off at the last minute after a deluge.
The team saw new signings Nick Buxton (on loan from Watford) and Artur Correia (signed from Windsor & Eton) come into the side. Rory Hunter also came back into the side.
The match started with Correia fancying his chances from 30-yards out, as he lashed a wild effort, that curled well wide. The early exchanges were positive from a Ducks point of view, until St Albans started to play.
A curling free-kick from the home side skimmed the far post, with Crawshaw lurking. It was the ex-Duck who opened the scoring after 9 minutes, with a typical poachers goal. St Albans won a corner after Lee Worgan failed to hold onto a high ball. A scramble ensued from the corner, and Crawshaw bunled the ball over the line. 1-0 St Albans
Simon Lodge replaced Steve Castle for the Saints, after a 'full blooded' challenge from Fiston Manuella.
St Albans were running the show by now, their slick passing and good movement was causing the Ducks no end of trouble. A deflected low cross almost reached Jon Challinor, but for an excellent last ditch tackle by Greg Williams. Lee Worgan attoned for his earlier error by making a couple of good stops, the first from a close range shot by Crawshaw, and the second after some poor defending from a free-kick.
Next up was an incident which changed the match. Rory Hunter was penalised for hand-ball inside the area, and the referee gave a penalty. In hindsight it was a very tough call for the ref to make, the ball did hit Rory's arm and hand, but it wasn't exactly deliberate. Greg Williams was booked for taking his protestations a bit far. In the end the decision to award the penalty was trivial, as Migual De Souza stepped up and hammered the ball high and wide.
The Ducks were having little luck going forward. Kezie Ibe was finding himself constantly caught offside, and Craig Maskell could do little else but try and play the ball around. However, there were some more promising interchanges before half-time.
It was Saints who were still pressuring the most though. Paul Ellis, who had a strong game at the back, cleared the ball with a back-header. Lee Worgan made another excellent save, more through luck than judgement though!
At the end of the half the Ducks had their first 'chance' of the game. Rory Hunter raced to the ball against the keeper, and they both arrived together. The ball was cleared in what was a rather scrappy mess.
Half-time: 1-0 St Albans
The start of the second half really was delightful from Aylesbury. The Ducks looked a changed team, and had drive and purpose throughout. Straight from kick-off Kezie Ibe did what he does best, and ran at the defence. This had them on the back foot, and Kezie tried his luck, but his shot was straight at Wilmot.
Not to be put-off though, Kezie went on another run at the Saints backline. And this time it brought a positive result. A low skimming shot was the product, which just hit the post. Luckily Rory Hunter was on hand to squeeze the ball home, for his first goal for the Ducks. 1-1
Phil Dicker replaced the injured Greg Williams for Aylesbury.
At this point it really looked like the Ducks could go on and win the game. The commitment and performance from the entire team was outstanding. A good driven free-kick from Paul Ellis was parried by Wilmot, and Artur Correia was just unable to reach the loose ball. A Richard Gell cross just evaded Rory Hunter right after.
Adam Campion replaced debutant Artur Correia and nearly made an immediate impact. Breaking free down the right Campion raced clear, and looked like he was going to easily slot the ball past Wilmot. Instead though, he tried to square the ball for an attacker, by which time St Albans had re-grouped and got bodies back to deal with the ball.
Lee Worgan then showed why he's so highly rated, as he pulled off a simply brilliant save to deny Richard Evans. Evans picked the ball up on the right flank, cut inside and curled the ball towards the top corner, with pace. Worgan somehow managed to tip the ball wide, with the ball seemingly destined for only the back of the net.
Saints manager then pulled off a masterstroke substitution which swung the game in the home sides favour. The underperforming De Souza was hauled off and replaced by Simon Martin.
Less than two minutes later, and Martin had given Saints the lead. A cross from the left presented him with an easy header from point blank range, which gave Worgan no chance. 2-1 Saints
Joe Baker replaced the tiring Rory Hunter as Aylesbury tried to get something.
Coming back again was always going to be tough for the Ducks, and it was made virtually impossible within three minutes as Saints added to their lead, again through a Martin header. 3-1 Saints
To their credit though, Aylesbury still battled hard, in conditions that had deterioated to awful. The ball was continually getting stuck in the mudbath that was the middle of the pitch, and players were falling all over the place. Ibe laid the ball back to Richard Gell who pulled the trigger, and shot just wide.
Joe Baker hit a weak curling effort, which appeared to be an easy catch for Wilmot. However the keeper spilt the ball and Kezie Ibe couldn't quite reach the rebound. St Albans were lucky to get away with the error.
Wimot was lucky again towards the end of the game after he handled the ball outside the area. The referee awarded a free-kick, but didn't even produce a card for the Saints keeper.
Towards the end of the game Worgan made another quality close range save following a corner, and Fiston talked himself into the referee's book.
On reflection, Aylesbury can be proud of their second half performance, which was the best I've seen for a while. As long as we play like that against Braintree on Saturday, we should have no problems.
