28 Sep 2026
St Albans City 4 Bury Town 1 (FA Trophy)
From Jess Unwin at Clarence Park, photos by Jim Standen
St Albans City will be feeling good about their upcoming FA Cup tie this Saturday after an emphatic victory against Bury Town that included a composed and clinical hat-trick for striker Kai Brown.
Brown’s ability to finish was just one of the many positives in the September sunshine at the weekend as City brushed aside Bury Town, taking total command of this game with a 3-0 lead after just 30 minutes.
Inih Effiong played a part in three of the four-goal tally that City eventually bagged, proving that he’s so much more than just the traditional ‘target man’ in the St Albans front line.
And behind him, young Mikey Faulker’s performance was once again eye-catching – this time occupying a central attacking role behind Brown and Effiong.
Jake Gray was a rock in midfield and Zambian international Frankie Musonda showed his experience and quality in effortlessly slotting in at centre back alongside Remi Sutton.
Bury (that’s Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk) were given early warning of the threat of City’s strikers when Brown just failed to connect with Effiong’s low cross into the six-yard box.
But the visitors, who play in the Southern League Premier Division Central, did go behind 1-0 on 16 minutes when Effiong won back possession and then found strike partner Brown with a deft pass into the penalty box. With plenty still to do, Brown shifted the ball to his right foot and fired into the bottom left corner.
After 26 minutes, Brown once again finished cooly, this time with his left foot, after a defence splitting pass from Faulkner – 2-0 to City. And just a minute later, Brown completed his hat trick, to the delight of the ecstatic Clarence Park 1,100 crowd, with both Faulkner mand Effiong involved in the build-up.
Perhaps spurred on by the possibility of a cricket score, Bury did manage to get a goal back on 36 minutes with a speculative shot from Max Maughn parried away by Saints keeper Sam Donkin but hit home on the rebound by Oliver Canfer.
However, just before the break, any glimmer of hope Bury had of making a game of it was snuffed out when Ryan Jolland was sent off for what looked like an elbow in the face of Faulkner.
The City faithful might have expected more goals in the second half, but although the home side were always in control, just one more goal was added.
That was on 56 minutes when Effiong got the goal his overall contribution deserved. A swift counterattack began with a perfectly judged pass from Faulkner that was collected out on the left wing by Ollie Knight. He raced forward and delivered a pin-point cross was that turned home expertly by Effiong.
Two new faces at Clarence Park made their debut in the Bury Town game. Attacking midfielder Tobi Akinyimika has become the second player – Jai-Dea Moulton is the other – to join St Albans City on loan from the Waford academy set-up. Akinyimika, 19, bagged 11 goals in the Hornets’ under-23s last season.
And 18-year-old winger Sidney Turner has signed for the 2026-27 campaign after impressing, alongside his brother Darcy, in City’s pre-season friendlies. He spent his formative years mainly in the Netherlands, playing youth football with AVV Zeeburgia, Ajax and Utrecht. He joins City via after spells with Midlands team FCV Grace Dieu and then Eastbourne Borough.
City now go through to the first round proper of the FA Trophy, which is presently scheduled
to take place on Saturday, October 24.
- St Albans City supporters will hope, of course, that the team can also progress in the FA
Cup by winning their tie with Harborough Town this Saturday (3).
City Manager Gary McCann told the club’s YouTube channel: “We need to prepare now for a
really tough game. Harborough have come a long way in the past five years, they’re well
managed and have some good players, but we’ve got to make sure we make it as tough a
game as possible for them too.”
Tickets to see St Albans City’s FA Cup third qualifying round game are only available to
travelling supporters via Harborough’s online Fanbase platform at
https://app.fanbaseclub.com/fixture/harborough-town-fc/22904. Online sales will close at
11am on matchday and there will be no away tickets available at the turnstiles. The ticket
allocation has been limited to 500 for Saints fans.
