08 Nov 2025
FA Cup, 1st round – Burton Albion 6 St Albans City 0
From Jess Unwin at the Pirelli Stadium. Photos by Dean Pegg.
Football is full of ‘what if?’ moments and Saints will look back at two of those in a game that saw their FA Cup journey come to an end with what some would argue was an undeserved scoreline against League One side Burton Albion.
Having made the worst possible start to Saturday’s cup tie by going 1-0 down in the very first minute, City showed the resilience that’s been evident in recent weeks and what if
moment number one came in the 25th minute when skipper Zane Banton was denied an equaliser when his shot forced an outstanding save from Albion keeper Kamil Dudek.
Saints started the second half very much still in the game and what if moment number two arrived on 46 minutes with Harrison Smith also denied an equaliser – his header from Lewis Page’s cross hit the inside of the post and bounced away to safety.
Instead of the scores being levelled at 1-1, a long throw at the other end just a minute later was flicked on to the back post where Charlie Webster was able to drive home to make it 2-0 to Albion.
It was a cruel blow that swung momentum in the home side’s favour and despite the continuing incredible support from the travelling Saints fans a further four goals followed
with City’s defences in disarray by the final whistle.
Albion manager Gary Bowyer was gracious enough to say in a BBC interview after the game that he thought the final result was harsh on St Albans and admitted he wasn’t happy with his team’s first half performance.
Not surprisingly, Saints’ interim player manager Michael Bostwick agreed. Speaking to the club’s social media, he said: “It was always going to be hard if you go 1-0 down within a minute, but I thought the lads showed great character after that because I actually thought we were the better team in the first half. Some of the football we played was really good.
“Little moments like Harrison’s header change the game. They go up the other end and score and you sort of see all the air go out of everyone. It’s hard to recover from something like that. One minute you think you’re back in it and then you’re two down. The game changed from there really.
“It wasn’t a 6-0 game today – that’s the downside because I don’t think we deserved that.”
Reflecting on the exit of St Albans manager Ian Culverhouse and his assistant Paul Bastock just four days before the cup tie, Bostwick revealed: “It was a massive shock and you could tell today we missed the gaffer. Everyone has their reasons and sometimes that happens and you just have to pull together.
“I’m used to being out there and trying to make a difference but obviously it’s harder to do that from the dugout. It’s disappointing at the end of the day but we have to pick up and go on with our aim in the league.”
Before the match, more than 600 Saints fans arrived at the Pirelli Stadium full of hope, but a tough task was made much harder when City were caught cold in the 1st minute. Albion defender Alex Hartridge was allowed to bring the ball to the halfway line, and then Fabio Tavares had too much time to find Tyrese Shade, who slipped the ball under keeper Magnus Norman to make it 1-0.
City fought back to dominate possession for a spell midway through the first half but couldn’t find an equaliser and Albion missed several chances to go further ahead. Kyran
Lofthouse and Webster should have done better, while Shade could also have netted after Josh Taroni’s cross-cum-shot hit hit the crossbar and rebounded to him, but he headed over.
In the second half, after the excellent Webster had made it 2-0, he got his second and Albion’s third with the goal of the game, running from near the halfway line with City
players in his wake before unleashing an unstoppable low shot into corner of the net to make it 3-0.
The crowd of 2,523 then saw Shade add his second goal on 80 minutes to make it 4-0, before Tavares scored twice on 83 minutes and 96 minutes as the Brewers finally showed they had the extra class where it mattered to emphatically finish Saints’ cup dreams.
