St Albans City boss Jon Meakes on the win over Maidstone Utd

Shaun Jeffers had put Saints in front midway through the first half in the National League South match at Maidstone United and they also ended the opening period a man to the good as well, George Fowler sent off on 42 minutes for a foul on Zane Banton.

Gio Rasulo doubled the Saints lead on 57 minutes and although the Stones did pull one back with 15 minutes remaining, City held on for a 2-1 win.

The points put them sixth in the table, two points above their hosts, although the Kent side do have a game in hand.

The City boss though says he would rather be leading than chasing.

Makes said: "You just have to stay in and around it. If you can beat the teams in and around you, it is a big win. You don't want to lose to them but to win just makes the gap.

"We just have to keep building the gap between the eighth placed team and us.

"I'm ecstatic and the boys are ecstatic. It's places like this you need to come to if you are going to stay in the play-off places.

"To come and get all three points is fantastic and I'm over the moon at the moment."

The assist on the first goal belonged to Jake Burger and the boss had plenty of praise for the youngster.

He said: "For a young man he was exceptional. He trained exceptionally well Tuesday and Thursday and that's why I put him in, he's the one that stood out.

"I tweaked it, maybe took a bit of a gamble on the shape where we played Zane, but overall we controlled the ball and popped it around.

"I thought Jake played very well."

He was a little concerned with the ending to the game and felt the referee had turned against them late on.

Meakes said: "Joe [Partington] came off with a precautionary injury, his calf was tightening up and so we thought we could bring him out and we knew had the options of Michael Clark and Dan on the bench.

"He's picked up a booking too, the same reason we took Shaun off, the referee was looking to even things off.

"I was disappointed to give a goal away the way we did.

"That gave them momentum and made us defend, and it doesn't matter if it is against 10 men, it is still momentum.

"But when we kept hold of the ball, second half we should have got two or three more goals."

Kyran Wiltshire returned to City squad after a ligament injury. Picture: NICK POTTS/PA (Image: Nick Potts/PA)

They travelled to Kent without George Hoddle, recalled by parent club Cambridge United following the arrival of new manager Garry Monk.

They did have Kyran Wiltshire back in the squad though after a long injury lay-off.

"I want to thank Cambridge for allowing us to have George," said Meakes. "He's developed well and he's obviously disappointed not to be with us for the run-in.

"But to get called up to Cambridge's first team is great news for the boy.

"I'm really happy for him, we've done our bit for him and he'll be looking out for our results.

"It's been a long nine months for Kyran, out with his ACL, and to get him back into the team, he's been pestering me to put him in the squad.

"He got an opportunity with a couple of things that changed in the week."