18 Mar 2026
Bishop’s Stortford 2 St Albans City 2 (4-3 on penalties), Herts Senior Cup, semi-final
From Jess Unwin at Woodside Park, Bishop’s Stortford. File photo of Zane Banton by Jim Standen.
Saints boss Gary McCann admitted he was angry after his team failed to clinch a place in the final of the Herts Senior Cup, despite dominating possession and having a string of goalscoring chances.
Defensive failings and attacking profligacy – shortcomings that have been an unwanted theme of too much of City’s 2025-26 season – re-emerged on Tuesday night.
St Albans fell behind to two very avoidable goals and although a second-half comeback – completed by Sonny Hart with a last-gasp 94th minute goal – eventually levelled the scoreline at 2-2, they lost the resulting penalty shoot-out 4-3.
McCann told the club’s YouTube channel: “I’m angry because I was desperate to serve up a cup final for the supporters. Yes, we’ve shown good character to get back into the game, but the brutal, harsh reality is we weren’t good enough.”
Focusing on City’s attacking performance, he said: “I didn’t think our decision-making, execution or quality was good enough at times – also our desire, our willingness to go that extra bit for the cause. And that’s where it matters.”
Looking at the bigger picture, he revealed: “It has highlighted again that it’s something that needs to be addressed this summer because that’s not good enough.”
City don’t look quite the same side without their injured top scorer, Leo Sery. “It’s been evident for all to see that we’ve been reliant on Leo,” McCann conceded.
“And it’s not just his goals. He has a physicality and a desire to go that extra yard – he puts his body on the line, and his physical output is frighteningly good, probably the best I’ve seen as a manager at any club. That is missed as much as his goals.
“But we can’t be a one- man team – it doesn’t work like that.”
He added: “The lottery of penalties shouldn’t have been on the agenda tonight if we’d been the best version of ourselves – that’s at the back as well as the front because we made errors defensively too.””
The first of those defensive slip-ups was just a few minutes into the game when Sam Donkin’s poor clearance gave Cole Dasilva the opportunity to the open the scoring with a really well taken right-foot shot from outside penalty area.
Saints dominated the next 20 minutes with goal chances for Lewis Page, Kieran Petrie and Alex Mather, but against the run of play found themselves 2-0 down when they failed to get the ball clear in the penalty area and Charlie Castle pounced to punish them.
The visitors again controlled possession of the ball but could not get past determined, sometimes aggressive, Stortford defending. Mather in particular got some rough treatment from Jaden Ogwuazor, which should have brought a yellow card.
In the last 10 minutes of the first half, Saints upped the pressure more, but Scott (twice) Alex Dyer and Mather couldn’t convert chances to reduce the deficit.
The chances – and domination of possession – continued for Saints after the break. A long- range effort from Hart was saved and a Sam Smart free kick deflected wide before skipper Zane Banton got on the end of long pass from Dyer, outmuscled a defender and beat Stortford keeper Adam Hayton. 2-1 and game on!
As City pushed for the equaliser, Hayton pulled off a brilliant save to stop a goal-bound Mather header but almost at the end of five minutes of extra time, Hart’s first goal for St Albans took the game to penalties.
After Banton’s spot kick was saved, Stortford looked favourites to progress, and when Hayton stopped Mather’s weakly hit penalty, their place in next month’s final against Hitchin Town was confirmed.
• Next up for St Albans is a tough home league clash this Saturday (21st ) against Ramsgate, who sit one place and one point ahead of City in the Isthmian League Premier Division table. Kick-off is 3pm.
