St Albans City players were full of apologies to their travelling support at the final whistle but that didn’t alter the fact they suffered a horrific 5-0 defeat to relegation-threatened Hungerford Town.

The first danger sign for the Saints came in the 12th minute when Danilo Orsi-Dadomo burst into the area and struck an effort straight at Dean Snedker.

The City goalkeeper was called upon to make another save four minutes later from a Alfy Whittingham free-kick, getting down well to his right to turn the strike away.

Liam Sole, making his first start for the club, forced Michael Luyambula into his first save of the game after working the ball forward and shooting from the edge of the area.

However, the home side struck less than a minute later through Orsi-Dadomo who was in the right place at the right time to turn home Cameron Hargreaves’ cross from the right.

The Crusaders continued to press and got their second of the afternoon on the half hour mark when Darren Foxley’s free-kick from 20 yards out looped over the City wall and past the diving Snedker.

That lead was extended even further in first-half stoppage time, once again through Orsi-Dadomo.

He picked the ball up in the box after another good spell of passing play from the hosts and found the far corner with his low strike.

Saints came out after the interval looking like a much-improved side and almost scored within two minutes of the restart, but Sole’s rifled drive was turned away by Luyambula.

Hungerford, however, continued to be a threat on the counter attack and should have extended their lead when Hargreaves latched onto a through ball but the wide-man’s effort was tipped away one-handed by Snedker.

Luyambula preserved his clean sheet just a minute later after Sole’s cross took a heavy deflection and the home stopper was forced to claw the ball out from virtually under his own crossbar.

That proved to be as close as the Saints would come to reducing the deficit and they could well have been four goals down a couple of minutes later, but Snedker did well to make a reaction save from a deflected cross

Marcus Johnson-Schuster’s curling effort crashed off of the bar before the fourth goal finally arrived, Matt Jones finding the back of the net from the edge of the box after he picked up Snedker’s wild throw.

And the scoring on a calamaitous afternoon for St Albans was complete three minutes later and it was again all too easy for the hosts as Whittingham beat the offside trap and calmly slotted the ball past Snedker.