Evo-Stik Southern Premier.

St Albans City 4, Cirencester Town 1.

CLINICAL finishing by former Blue Square Conference South side St Albans left Cirencester Town on the wrong end of a 4-1 defeat on the opening day of the season.

But the scoreline was very harsh on the visitors who had dominated much of the first half-hour.

In the first minute, Paul Banks broke through and drove a ferocious shot at goal which Staines Town loanee Kyle Merson did well to block. The rebound came out to Ellis Dunton, who blazed his shot over the bar setting the tone for the end-to-end game that followed.

Ciren were making much of the running with debutant Andy Gunn, in at right back for the injured Neil Arndale, striking the crossbar with a header from one of Town’s many corners.

Against the early run of play, the skilful Jerome Walker broke down the right for St Albans and produced a sublime cross which Haworth met with a crashing header at the back post for a stunning 12th-minute goal.

David Stone, on his league debut for Town, produced some good trickery to send the tireless Banks free on the right hand side of the area and he delivered a great cross of his own to find another debutant, Mike Tambling a yard from goal. Somehow Tambling managed to clear the crossbar with his close range shot.

Town found themselves in trouble a few minutes later with Danny Greaves doing well to parry a long range free kick. From the resulting corner in the 27th minute, Greaves punched clear of his area but Solomon Shields sent his return shot into the back of the net past Ciren’s keeper, who was unsighted by two offside City players.

Things were to get worse when, in the 36th minute, tricky left winger Sean Shields went on a mazy run into the heart of the penalty area and his shot deflected off a Town defender to make it 3-0.

Just as the half-time whistle was about to blow, Ciren hit the bar again, this time with a Matt Sysum header from another well-delivered corner from James Mortimer-Jones.

In the 73rd minute Town earned a well deserved consolation goal. Substitute Jamie Reid, who had come on for Ellis Dunton, took the ball down well on the edge of the box, went past one player and drilled the ball low across goalkeeper Merson into the far corner.

St Albans then showed the strength of their squad bringing on striker Paul Furlong, once of Chelsea, QPR and Birmingham, and he made an instant impact as he chased a long ball over the top, outmuscled Zak Westlake and lofted the ball over Greaves, who appeared to misjudge the flight of the ball, to make it 4-1 to the home side in the 72nd minute.

In the closing ten minutes, Mortimer-Jones shot over, while substitute Jody Bevan had a shot saved and then should have done better with a late lob which he put wide.

Manager Brian Hughes will be looking for a big response from his side for the visit of Stourbridge on Tuesday night.

Cirencester Town: Greaves, Gunn, Mansell (capt), Westlake, Dunton (Bevan, 60), Sysum, Etheridge, Mortimer-Jones, Banks, Stone, Tambling (Reid, 60). Unused subs: Mayo, Loughman.

MoM: Paul Banks.