St Albans City may have been beaten by Ebbsfleet United but head coach David Noble was still proud of his team.
The home side got off to a flying start with Chay Cooper sending them into a sixth-minute lead after cutting in from the flank.
But two goals in eight second-half minutes either side of the hour mark, the first from Dominic Poleon and the second for Toby Edser, handed the National League South leaders a 2-1 victory, strengthening their title challenge and maintaining their 11-point advantage.
But the Saints boss pointed to missed chances in the first half and a decision early in the second as moments that they already look back on with regret.
Noble said: "I’m disappointed but proud of the players. That was a really good performance bar 10 minutes in the second half.
"But that’s what big teams do to you.
"If we’d gone in two or three-nil up, there wouldn’t have been too many arguments.
"And then right after half-time, Joe [Neal] has a shot when he should square it to Chay who is free in the box.
"That would have been a tough mountain for them to climb.
"They are the best side in this league by a way but what I will say is they know they have been in a game tonight.
"That’s credit to us.
"We were still trying to get that equaliser [late on] but it just didn’t come and that wasn’t through a lack of passion or commitment or running and anything else."
Noble had thrown a surprise by including Neal ahead of top scorer Shaun Jeffers in the starting line-up.
That was nothing more than wanting to give the former Biggleswade Town man a chance to play through the middle according to the boss.
He said: "I wanted to give Joe a go tonight. We knew it was going to be a difficult game with lots of pressing and running and Joe is very good at that."
The result means City have just one win and four points from the last 12 available, a sequence that has dropped them out of the play-off positions.
And only they can put that right.
Noble said: "It’s down to us, I look at what we do and if we perform like that until the end of the season, we’ll be alright."
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