Three wonder strikes at Burnham on Tuesday night earned St Albans City their biggest three points of the season, according to joint manager James Gray.

The Saints conceded two goals in the first five minutes at The Gore before finally adapting to the “worst pitch” in the Southern League. James Comley slammed home his second in two games from 30 yards before John Frendo netted his 30th of the season from the same distance.

James Kaloczi saved the best for last and blasted the ball into the net from distance to haul City up to fourth in the table.

After the game, Gray said: “The lads had to dig deep and all credit to them for coming back. They showed massive character and I’ll go on record as saying that’s our biggest three points of the season.

“The over-riding feeling is relief. We know we should have done better in the first half and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb on a pitch that you wouldn’t play rugby on.

“But if we played the correct way in the second half I was confident of winning three points, which we did.”

For all the recent talk of City’s unwillingness to pull the trigger outside of the area, Gray said those concerns had been washed away by his sides’ “worldy” goals against Burnham.

“Good to see, after a few weeks that we haven’t been shooting, us scored three 30 yarders.”

City are not in league action on Saturday. Their next Calor Southern League tie is on Tuesday night against Arlesey. The sides met at Clarence Park on Saturday, with St Albans winning 5-0.