ST ALBANS City manager Steve Castle praised his defenders after they kept their third clean sheet in a row against playoff chasing Team Bath. Castle s plans were thrown out of the window when Ben Martin woke up on Saturday morning with a stiff neck, but S

ST ALBANS City manager Steve Castle praised his defenders after they kept their third clean sheet in a row against playoff chasing Team Bath.

Castle's plans were thrown out of the window when Ben Martin woke up on Saturday morning with a stiff neck, but Scott Cousins came into the side at centre half and put in a Man of the Match performance.

"It wasn't ideal. I thought last night I'd had it all sorted out, same again [as Bognor] with Simon [Martin] coming in for Paul Hakim who was suspended but that happens in football, the spanner in the works, but I thought twelve lads that played out there equipped themselves very well and gave me a slight selection problem for Tuesday.

"Alex [Bailey] has done fantastic. James Quilter has done very well, Scott Cousins has done very well, Hassan Sulaiman - that back four with Ben Martin being fit that does give me a real headache because each and every one of them will find themselves a little bit unlucky to be left out on Tuesday but I can only play four unfortunately."

City had the majority of the possession but couldn't find a way through a resolute Team Bath defence and Castle admits it's his side's lack of goals that is hindering their chances of a playoff place.

"I think it's been a season long problem for us, no way were we a poorer team than them, I think we shaded it but you get no points for possession. The attitude of them was fantastic but goals change games as we know in the last two games.

"It's frustrating. I didn't think they were too bad. We had the lion's share of possession but it just ground itself out to a dour 0-0 unfortunately."

AFC Wimbledon are the visitors to Clarence Park tomorrow night and Castle says his side just need to keep on being positive.

"That's my job to keep positive and obviously with the two tough games we've got, I looked at four points from the two games. I probably looked at this [Team Bath game] as the victory and Wimbledon as the draw but hopefully we've got Ben Martin, Ryan Frater I'm not sure about and Paul Hakim's back so we've just got to keep on being positive.