Match Report: St Albans 0 Torquay United 1

Defender Ollie Tomlinson's first senior goal was enough for injury-hit Torquay United to follow up their 2-1 home victory over Chippenham Town in midweek with a solid if unspectacular first away win of the season against St Albans City at Clarence Park.

Gary Johnson's Gulls knew that a 'clean sheet' was their best bet for a follow-up result, and they earned it against a St Albans side which had reached the National League South Play-Off Final last season.

Young Tomlinson not only scored the 38th minute winner, but he was part of a defence which seldom looked like being caught out and left goalkeeper Mark Halstead with few serious saves to make.

United move on to seven points from their first four games of the season, and they will hope to have a couple of their injured men back for the double-header at Slough Town next Saturday and home to Braintree Town on Bank Holiday Monday. 

The win over Chippenham had cost Torquay two more players, skipper Asa Hall (ankle) and centre-forward Aaron Jarvis (dead leg) - they joined already-injured trio Kevin Dawson, Dean Moxey and Finley Craske.

So Johnson brought Plymouth Argyle loanee Will Jenkins Davies and Dillon De Silva into midfield, with Lewis Collins joining Brad Ash up front.

City boss David Noble had also picked up injuries in their 2-1 win at Havant & Waterlooville on Wednesday, so he was forced into changes and a defensive reshuffle which saw ex-Gull Ben Wyatt returning a left-back.

Playing out from the back seems to be the done thing even in the NL South these days, for just as Worthing and Chippenham had done before them, St Albans were determined to do it at every opportunity.

United had countered it much better on Tuesday than they had done last Saturday, and they were ready for it again - the Saints only succeeded in bringing their opponents onto them and the Gulls duly dominated the first half.

Nobody benefitted more than Jack Stobbs, who delivered a stream of crosses and corners into the home goalmouth.

United missed Jarvis' presence in the middle and, after De Silva had squandered a great heading chance on a Stobbs centre, it was a defender who came up with the breakthrough in the 38th minute.

Following up his own corner off De Silva, Stobbs crossed to the far post where Tomlinson forced the ball home from close range…1-0 to United.

Ross Marshall came up with a key tackle to stop Shaun Jeffers breaking away in a rare Saints attack, but Torquay generally had few scares in defence on a poor pitch for this time of year.

Wyatt nearly got on the end of a Dylan Fage cross just before half-time, and the hosts did threaten to lift their game for a spell after the restart.

Ash picked up a booking for kicking the ball away.

Martin, busy as ever on the left, nearly deceived Michael Johnson with a cheeky chip shot before Jeffers missed Saints' best chance of the match, firing a good chance over from Fage's cross in the 57th minute.

It would have been only right if Stobbs had capped his afternoon with a goal, and he should have done it twice in quick succession on the hour, sending one cross-shot just over and then allowing a defender to foil him in front of goal.

Johnson was able to send on Dylan Crowe, Ryan Hanson and Brett McGavin for De Silva, Marshall and Lapslie in the last 20 minutes as United continued to keep St Albans at bay without too many alarms.

Not even seven minutes of stoppage-time was enough for the home side to deny Torquay another valuable three points.  

St Albans City (4-4-2): Johnson; Brown, Bowry, Carlyle, Wyatt; Fage, Smith, Hoddle, Dunn (Blackman 52); Rasulo, Jeffers; subs not used - Bentley (gk), Clark, McDonald, Da Silva. 

Booked: None.

Torquay United (4-4-2): Halstead; Donnellan, Marshall (Hanson 78), Tomlinson, Martin; Stobbs, Lapslie (McGavin 85), Jenkins Davies, Collins; Ash, De Silva (Crowe 69); subs not used - Lovett (gk) Thomas.

Booked: Ash 49, Collins 88.

Referee: George Laflin (Suffolk).

Attendance: 1,635.