A goal in the final minute of normal time was enough to give St Albans City victory at Havant & Waterlooville - and manager David Noble was pleased with good chunks of the performance.

Dylan Fage had put the visitors in front at Westleigh Park after a first half that had the boss drooling with excitement.

But the home side rallied after the break, equalising through Ansu Janneh, and it needed "two bits of quality" for Saints to clinch the 2-1 win and move up to sixth in the National League South table.

Noble said: "The first 15 or 20 minutes was the best we’ve played this season. We were very good. 

"We scored a goal but then started to give them chances through our own wrongdoing, playing silly balls straight through the middle. 

"It’s about recognising the game, game management, which we’ve spoken about a lot, but when you keep doing it over and over again it is frustrating for a manager. 

"Bar them little bits though, the first half was the best we’ve played. 

"The second half though was a little bit more scary. 

"Havant come out and really had a go. We were hanging on a little bit but two good bits of quality, the ball from Bobby Dunn and the header from Gio, won it. 

"I’m delighted but we did make hard work of it." 

And while the second goal was "quality", Noble thought the first was even better.

He said: "It was a superb goal. I can’t remember who played it to Gio but Mitch [Weiss] run beyond and took the centre-back out of the play, Gio cut inside and then to reverse it with the little backheel to Dylan [was good]. 

"And the finish from Dylan was mustard. It was a really good goal."

One worrying note was the fact they made two substitutions inside the first half and the third at half-time, with Weiss, Andronicos Georgiou and Jack James all limping off with injuries.

The City boss said: "Mitch is hopefully just a dead led, his thigh, then Andron was saying his hamstring was tight and then right on half-time and then JJ said he was feeling something in his calf. 

"It wasn’t ideal. We’ve already got Zane out and we’ll have to see. 

"It was a tough one on the legs but the boys put a shift in."

Saints host Torquay United on Saturday.