St Albans City manager David Noble has warned his players that complacency cannot be an issue for them - as their National League South play-off hopes remain in their hand. 

That is still the case despite a hugely underwhelming 2-0 loss at home to Braintree Town, a result which lifts the Essex side one place above them in the table. 

Another team from that county await Saints on Monday, the seemingly-doomed Concord Rangers who remain stranded at the foot of the table following a 7-0 mauling at the hands of Worthing on Friday. 

And if the City players under perform again, then they will get beat says the boss. 

Noble said: "I hope [the Braintree loss] is a blip because it is still in our hands. We still have four games to go, four big games.  

"No team, no matter the situation like Concord, will come out and lay down. It doesn’t happen. 

"It is not in human nature and if it does, then you won't be playing at this level. 

"We are expecting a tough game and we've been better against the better teams."  

He was really upset with the individual performances against the Iron. 

"That wasn’t the best," he admitted. "We had seven, eight, even nine players under par and if you do, you’re going to struggle.  

"We weren’t ourselves. Braintree came with a game plan and it worked.  

"We knew what they were going to do but we didn’t have enough runners getting behind them in the first half, penetrating runs.  

"Everyone wanted to come to feet where what has brought us success in recent weeks is running in behind teams and affecting their back-line.  

"We didn’t do that enough."