25 Nov 2025
St Albans City 2 Carshalton Athletic 1 (Isthmian League Premier Division)
From Jess Unwin at Clarence Park, photos by Jim Standen.
Veteran defender Michael Bostwick and youthful striker Harrison Smith were the goal-scoring heroes as St Albans City staged a dramatic late comeback to clinch victory in manager Gary McCann’s first home league match.
With time running out and Saints trailing 1-0, the mood was as bleak as the relentless rain at Clarence Park on Saturday until a remarkable turnaround against Carshalton Athletic that many in the ground would admit hadn’t really looked as if it was coming.
But come it did. First, on 89 minutes, substitute Smith got in front of a crowd of players at the near post to glance home a great header from an in-swinging Lewis Page corner to level the scores at 1-1.
Then, on 92 minutes, Page was once again the provider when his free kick initially provided Elliot Betjemann with the chance of a close-range header. That effort was parried by keeper Matthew Kerbey but the ball fell opportunely to Bostwick who gleefully stabbed home from just outside the six-yard box to win the game 2-1.
After the match McCann was full of praise for Bostwick, who has clearly recovered from his recent hamstring injury and who turned in yet another hugely important performance for Saints: “Bostwick was outstanding,” he said, “I thought he was the man of the match. He never missed a thing. He cleared when that was needed, he showed calmness when that was required. When they went long it was his head that was on the end of it.”
Talking to the St Albans Times, McCann went on to spotlight the positive impact the 37-year-old is having on the younger members of the City squad – players such as 21-year-old Kieran Gauthier, who was his centre back partner on Saturday: “He’s a great foil for young Keiran. You can see Keiron benefits massively from having the experience of having Bostwick around him.”
Another of the younger Saints players is of course 20-year-old Smith, who has a special place in the hearts of St Albans City supporters as a former student of Verulam secondary school, which is just a short walk from Clarence Park.
The goal against Carshalton was his first for City this season and means that he and fellow Saints striker Alex Wall, who scored a brace against Canvey Island recently, are now both off the mark after a barren start to the season.
McCann said of Smith: “Just look at his reaction after scoring his goal – the kid is desperate to do well for the club – he’s a great individual, a great lad. He’s had some real problems for a young man with his knee injury, but he’s continued to be resilient, continued to keep fighting his way back and I’m pleased he’s contributed to the win the today.”
The Saints supporters in Saturday’s 1,014 crowd must have been wondering why they had braved the uncomfortable weather conditions after their team were the better side in the first half but faded after the break and then fell behind to a 66th-minute goal from Bryan Ifeanyi.
There was no shortage of effort from the men in yellow after that but there were too many unforced errors and, until the dramatic events of the last few minutes, there wasn’t much cutting edge against Carshalton’s determined resistance.
McCann admitted: “Sitting on the side I was thinking it wasn’t going to be our afternoon to be honest. We didn’t create too much for 10-15 minutes after the goal, but we did take the game to them, and I think all five substitutes played their part and finished the game brilliantly for us.
“What you take from late wins is that you know you’ve got the ability to recover a game at any stage, you know you’ve got the ability to stay at it and get yourself something from games when it looks like it’s beyond you. That will serve us well in the months ahead.”
