Ian Allinson is delighted with St Albans City’s start to the Vanarama National League South season – which has seen them win both games.
They started with a 3-2 success away at Oxford City, Shaun Lucien, Solomon Sambou and Sam Merson getting the goals, before a battling 2-1 win over Wealdstone at Clarence Park on Tuesday night, Banton and Merson again on target.
Both games saw them come from behind before claiming the three points, with the Wealdstone success achieved with 10 men for the majority of the second half following Tom Bender’s sending off.
The City boss said: “We didn’t play well [against Weladstone] but the resiliency in the side is there for all to see.
“We’ve got a young side who have the energy and willingness to go and work and they’ve been fantastic and put their bodies on the line. And obviously we’ve got the result.
“We had to dig really deep, especially playing with 10 men for 40 minutes.
“Full credit to our boys who kept believing they could get something out of the game while keeping their shape.”
The defensive display was one that had supporters buzzing after the game with special praise reserved for Tom Gardiner, who replaced the sacrificed Shaun Lucien following the sending off.
Allinson said: “I thought the back four were extremely good and Tom Gardiner did excellent when he came on.
“Layne Eadie has come in, Harold Joseph has come in and they’ve both Bostik Premier League players. I nboth games they’ve put in tremendous displays and Tom Gardiner lost his place on Saturday to Harold.
“And sometimes you get a reaction or players sulk but he hasn’t and I thought he was excellent. He won his headers, he cleared his lines and played as a centre-half should do.
“And if we keep doing that [as a team] we’ll be fine.
“But we’re still young and we’re still learning and there’s still opportunities to keep the ball better than we’ve done but we dug deep against a good Wealdstone side that won’t get beaten too often this season.”
A confident City will now go into another home game against Weston-super-Mare on Saturday with the Saints manager hoping the energy displayed in the closing stages, both on and off the pitch, will be replicated.
He added: “I thought the crowd were excellent in that last 15 minutes because they gave the players a lift and got behind them and kept them going.
“But we should be building on this. This is the confidence we need.
“The players deserved [the win against Wealdstone], the crowd deserved it and we’ll look to take it into the Weston game.
“The expectations have risen but there’s no given three points in this league.
“We’ve got to approach it in the right way, be positive and give everything we’ve got.”
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