The Fleet were back to winning ways after a clinical first-half set of goals put the game effectively out of reach for St Albans, despite a brave effort by the visitors in the second half after they lost goalkeeper Michael Johnson and had to replace him with midfielder Huw Dawson.
Following the rollercoaster of Saturday’s activities against Welling, Dennis Kutrieb made three changes to his side, with Kieran Monlouis making a return alongside Ben Chapman and Sido Jombati. That was against an unchanged St Albans side fresh from their point at home to Dartford.
The visitors looked to capitalise on a couple of misplaced Fleet passes early on before Monlouis’ attempted shot was intercepted by Huw Dawson.
Chapman lit up the night with a stunning overhead kick on seven minutes after good work from Omari Sterling-James but although he got style and power in the effort, it smashed into the side netting. Rakish Bingham then supplied Luke O’Neill for a low shot but that was denied by goalkeeper Johnson.
The City keeper then had to watch as Haydn Hollis glanced a header across the face of goal from Craig Tanner’s 15th minute corner. Fleet had the slight edge in possession terms but the Saints were neat on the ball and Joe Neal got away on the break to give Kyran Wiltshire an opening, his shot on target but at Mark Cousins.
It was Fleet, however, who found the target on 24 minutes in a repeat of their earlier chance, Tanner’s corner flung into the middle and Hollis met it with enough force to go in off the inside of the post.
Three minutes after that there was a shout for a penalty when Chapman got away and was challenged in the box by Devonte Stanley. And while the protests were still ringing out, Chapman had picked himself up to find space to meet a good pass forward and swing it across to Poleon who was racing into the gap to slot home for the second.
Two down, the visitors tried to respond through top scorer Shaun Jeffers as he sauntered across the Fleet box and sent a decent curling effort over the upright.
Fleet were soon back on it and the irrepressible Chapman was creating plenty from the left, jinking into the box to find Poleon but he half-stumbled in shooting, still managing to win a corner with an effort deflected the wrong side of the post.
Disaster struck St Albans five minutes before half-time when Johnson appeared to dislocate a finger and the goalkeeper was forced to leave the field, to be replaced between the posts by young midfielder Dawson. And moments later Michael Clark had to be substituted as well after he was injured in a tackle on Poleon, forcing six minutes of added time and a real headache for the visitors.
And the evening got even worse for the Saints moments before those six minutes were reached when Sterling showed a clean pair of heels down the right to skip past a challenge, reach the box and play in Bingham who was able to supply the perfect low cross for Poleon to slide home his second of the evening and 14th of the season.
And it could have been 4-0 with the first attack of the second half, Poleon and Chapman combining down the left for a delivery into the middle where Monlouis’ rising effort cleared stand-in keeper Dawson but rattled back off the bar. That was as good as the second-half got for the league leaders, however, as the Saints played some good, positive football as they sought to get back into the game.
Dawson gained some much-needed confidence to save from Tanner’s 50th minute shot but the yellow shirts did their level best to protect the teenager by keeping Fleet away from their half for a period of time and Tafari Moore three times ventured forward to send the ball into the home six-yard box.
And St Albans got a goal back on 70 minutes when Jeffers was well placed in the middle to tuck away a pass from the right by Zane Banton as the visitors showed why they have been much improved of late. And they got further encouragement on 76 minutes after two yellow cards for Chapman in quick succession, his second coming after his surge into the box was ended by Joy Mukena and the fall to ground judged as simulation.
There was a flare-up immediately after that when Mitchell Weiss was yellow-carded for a blow to Shaq Coulthirst and with 11 on the pitch, St Albans kept going on the front foot but without really penetrating a comfortable Fleet back line.
There wasn’t much to worry the home faithful with their 3-1 lead despite the commendable efforts of the visitors to force a second goal and a grandstand finish but it never quite came, as Fleet extended their lead atop the table.
EUFC: Cousins, O’Neill, Jombati, Hollis, N’Guessan, Monlouis (Edser 63), Chapman, Sterling-James, Tanner (Coulthirst 74), Bingham, Poleon (Cundle 83). Subs: McQueen, Finney
SACFC: Johnson (Sundire 41), Stanley, Wiltshire, Adebiyi, Clark (Townsend-West 45), Jeffers, Banton, Dawson, Mukena, Moore, Neal (Weiss 68). Subs: Isaac, Morrall
Attendance: 1,145
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