Ian Allinson slammed St Albans City’s first-half performance as “horrendous” as the sorry Saints crashed out of the FA Cup at Taunton Town.

They were 3-0 down by the break at the Viridor Stadium and it could have been more with a shot in the closing moments rattling the visitors’ crossbar.

And the Southern League side continued their impressive showing in the second-half, blunting a half-hearted comeback to win 5-2.

And Allinson was naturally very unhappy.

“We were second best all over the park,” he said. “I didn’t think we got to grips with what they were doing.

“We were poor from set-pieces, we didn’t react to balls into the box, and before we knew where we were, it was 3-0.

“We never really created and as I’ve said, sometimes you have to earn the right to win a game of football and we didn’t do that.

“We were poor.

“We questioned a few at half-time and there was a response.

“It’s just a shame that the two goals in the second half were shambolic.

“The first 45 minutes were really horrendous in terms of where we’ve been this season.”

Most of the goals came from crosses with two of the opening three goals from set-pieces.

It was horribly similar to earlier in the season and after the work put in to cure that, Allinson found it particularly galling.

He said: “We haven’t done our jobs properly, that’s the frustration. I know who hasn’t applied themselves and they’ll have to improve if they want to be in the side on Saturday.

“And we still haven’t applied ourselves for their fourth and fifth goals.

“It could have been six or seven but we were chasing the game in the second half.”

Getting to the third qualifying round has been a drama in itself but the City boss refused to use that as an excuse, saying they had definitely done their homework on the impressive Peacocks.

“We made people aware of their weaknesses and their strengths,” he said. “We spoke to people like Jimmy Gray at Hendon and every report we got was that they work extremely hard, they are very good in what they do and they believe they are a National League side in terms of the players they’ve got.

“We knew what to expect but we didn’t really start the game like it was a league game.

“We haven’t applied ourselves from the first whistle. First thing you have to do to win a game of football is compete and we didn’t do that.

“I’m disappointed, I’m disappointed for the fans that made the journey and as a changing room we haven’t been good enough and we have to respond against Bath on Saturday.”