United were comprehensively beaten on Saturday, as St Albans ran out 4-0 winners at Plainmoor. The visitors made the perfect start, with Shaun Jeffers giving St Albans the lead, before Girogio Rasulo doubled that lead later in the first half. A second from Jeffers before the interval put the away team in full charge, before Rasulo added further gloss in the second half with his second, and his side’s fourth. United boss Gary Johnson gave a full debut to new signing Austen Booth in addition to two other changes to the side that lost 4-2 at Worthing last Saturday, as Finley Craske and Lewis Collins took their places alongside Booth in the starting XI, with the injured Ross Marshall and suspended duo of Will Jenkins Davies and Dean Moxey all dropping out of the matchday squad. There were only seven minutes on the clock when The Saints broke the deadlock. A through ball saw Jeffers hold off the attentions of Finley Craske before bearing down on Mark Halstead, and although Torquay’s No.1 made a fine save, Jeffers confidently fired home the rebound to make it 1-0. Three minutes later the advantage was nearly doubled, however on this occasion, all in yellow were relieved to see Jeffers rattle the crossbar. The Gulls appeared to treat that let-off as a wake-up call, and after working their way back into proceedings, they created some chances themselves.. 
A good run from Dan Martin down the left saw him find space to fire the ball across the box to Brad Ash, however the Torquay striker unfortunately couldn’t get enough power on the effort to restore parity, with Collins unable to make his follow-up count. Mitchell Weiss was the next player to threaten in the 32rd minute, as the St Albans man forced United’s backline to retreat before flashing a shot wide of the target. In what was becoming a very open encounter, The Gulls again looked to hit back, with Collins forcing a save from goalkeeper Michael Johnson with a snapshot inside the box. Things got worse before the break though. In the 37th minute, George Hoddle fed Rasulo, who produced a cool finish to double St Albans’ lead, and then, four minutes before the interval it was three. This time Weiss’ header saw Jeffers find himself...Read more
