Belief could be key for St Albans City in New Year says Ben Herd

No one team has taken the league by the scruff of the neck this year, with Saints only five points from the summit despite being in eighth and 11 points separating the top half of the table.

And City’s full-back thinks the youthful squad have all the tools to drive forward in the New Year, if they trust in themselves.

He said: “It’s frustrating because we’ve got some good players that are good enough to go on and play in the Football League but have also got fragile attitudes.

And I don’t mean that in a bad way but when things are going well, they are with it, but when you have a little setback, they go into their shells because they are inexperienced and young.

“It can become a bit of a vicious circle that you have to try and break out of it.

“When you’re 1-0 down it’s easy to go and attack because you’ve got nothing to lose. You can throw caution to the wind but we’ve got to do that when it’s 0-0.

“We’ve got to be braver, certainly on the ball and willing to receive it more.

“I think if you can get a period of 10 games where you win six and maybe draw three then you’ll be flying.

“It’s really open. At the minute though I feel like there are a lot of teams bottling it, and we’re one of them.

“We need to go out and run teams over and say ‘this is us, try and stop us’.”

Herd feels City’s fabulous start to the year, when they won the opening six games, came from the number of new faces, with teams under-estimating the side’s strengths.

He also believes injuries in key positions haven’t helped either.

“It’s disruptive having the injuries,” he admitted. “It’s hard to get an understanding with people when you’re not playing with them every week.

“It’s hard for some of those that have come in. There’ve been a lot of change but injuries can’t be helped.

“The team camaraderie is good. There are some good characters in the changing room like David Noble and Tom Bender.

“I do enjoy that and I’ll miss it when I stop playing.”