St Albans City’s victory over Hertford Town highlighted the problems facing Ian Allinson’s threadbare squad although the manager was also keen to look at the positives.

David Noble’s 77th-minute goal gave Saints their first success in seven weeks but it wasn’t a fluent performance against the Bostik League outfit.

And part of the reason for that according to the boss was the lack of playing time for some of his players coupled with one or two low in confidence.

Allinson said: “We’ve got some players that need games but they’re miles off at the moment.

“We’ve tried to train them hard, we’ve tried to give them a game tonight but they just seem to be lacking a little bit of sharpness.

“And that really showed. Three or four players really struggled with their performances.

“It was a very lame performance and there are some worrying signs there.

We have a massive month coming up and I’ve got to lead this lot but at the moment three or four of them just seem a little sorry for themselves.

“It hasn’t been good enough over the last few weeks and we have to improve, simple as that.”

The cure is to bring in new faces. One, Jordan Sanderson, took his place on the bench as an unused substitute and Allinson says he will hopefully be the first of a few this week.

Allinson said: “The squad is small and I’m working hard on getting on getting a couple of players in by the weekend but they have to be the right players.

“They have to be players that improve us and make us a better side.

“Jordan was at Concord last year and damaged his cruciate ligament so he is on his way back,” said the Saints manager.

“He’s impressed us in training but he is a body we need. He’s another midfielder.

“We probably need to get another defender in as Tom Bender looks like he will be out for another three weeks.

“We’ve got a couple of targets. At the moment the squad isn’t strong enough and it isn’t good enough.”

But the Saints manager also believed there were positives that could be taken from the game

“It’s a game that we have won and that’s important,” he admitted.

“We need to pick it up and take it forward.

“The clean sheet is a positive but we need to start scoring goals.”