David Noble has bemoaned St Albans City's inconsistency following defeat to struggling Slough Town in National League South.

They were beaten 2-1 at home, Shaun Jeffers scoring a penalty late on as consolation, but the three points were enough to lift Slough up one place to 16th and seven points above the bottom four.

For Saints though, the defeat makes it just one win and four points from the last five games, a sequence that included defeat to bottom of the league Hungerford Town.

And the head coach knows why that is.

Herts Advertiser: Shaun Jeffers pulled one back for St Albans City from the penalty spot. Picture: SACFCShaun Jeffers pulled one back for St Albans City from the penalty spot. Picture: SACFC (Image: St Albans City FC)

"We’re just too inconsistent," he said. "You can’t be a great team if you’re inconsistent, simple as that.

"The best teams are consistent."

His side were sunk by two brilliantly taken goals but both resulted from avoidable free-kicks according to the gaffer.

"Cheap free kicks," said Noble. "If that’s the only two ways that the team’s going to score then don't give them the free kicks in the first place."

A real issue which has arisen in February has been a trend of performing much better against teams higher up in the standings.

That is another thing that Saints have to cut from their game.

Noble said: "You can’t be a successful team if you’re getting beat by teams like that.

"You can’t play well against the good teams and play badly against the bottom teams because anyone in this league can beat you and we’ve found that out this month.

"We lost to Hungerford who were at the bottom of the league and Slough who are 17th.

"It’s not good enough."

This may be down to the tactical setup of Noble, which has been extremely effective up to this month but has started to be nullified by the lower teams in the league.

His side play a formation of 3-4-3 which puts a lot of reliance on the marauding wing-backs of Devante Stanley and Tafari Moore. 

The issue with this setup against the lesser teams, which was especially the case against Slough, is that the opposition often set up with five defenders which nullifies the attacking threat of the wide men.

There was definitely a difference in the team's performance when Noble made the substitution of Mitchell Weiss for Joy Mukena, which replaced one of the centre backs for an attacking midfielder, switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation which was much more effective.

And regardless of the system used, Noble is still confident his side can push for the play-offs despite this blip in form.

They are just outside the top seven but do have a game in hand on all bar one of the teams above them.

He said: "Of course [we can still push for the play-offs]. There’s still 14 games to go."