Castle wants more quality from Saints

SAINTS boss Steve Castle has urged his side to show more quality as they head to Staines Town tonight (Tuesday) in search of their first win of the season.

St Albans City remain unbeaten after three straight draws but Castle was frustrated after a 0-0 draw with 10-man Braintree Town.

“I’ve got a great deal of frustration,” admitted Castle afterwards.

“I wasn’t the best player in the world by any shape or form but I did know what to do in the right areas and did know how to keep the thing.

“We just seem to be far too chancy with the things we’re attempting and trying to impress whoever. It’s certainly not impressing me.

“If it’s never coming off, surely there’s got to be a lightbulb that’s got to come on to say that a little bit more simple football’s needed so we can trust each other with the ball and maybe build on one or two touch football. I’m one who always says we need more end product, we need more crosses, more shots, more tackles and more headers and if we can do that we’ve got a chance.

“Give Braintree all the credit they deserve. It didn’t look like it was 10 v 11, they worked hard and I’ve got no complaints about it being a 0-0.”

The result gave City their second clean sheet in two outings but Castle stressed there has never been any doubts over the quality of the Saints’ defence.

“When you’ve got Paul Bastock, Ben Martin, Ryan Frater, Adam Everitt, Pete Smith and Dave Deeney, who I think is excellent and was excellent today, you are going to be hard to beat,” he said.

“We’re going to be competitive, we are undefeated, which is important but we all want to see goals and we all want to see flowing football but the bottom line is if you keep giving the ball away you’re not going to get flowing football.”

Young striker Inih Effiong had a mixed afternoon. The 19-year-old started the game brightly and unsettled Braintree defender Adam Bailey-Dennis resulting in the visitor’s dismissal but in the second half the former Oaklands College pupil struggled to get in the game and Castle says learning how to overcome that is all part of the player’s development.

He said: “We’ve got a young lad in Inih Effiong, who is a very good player but he will have peaks and troughs he is learning the game.

“It’s got to be a learning curve for him, because however well he did in the first half, it didn’t happen in the second half. I think a little bit of complacency came in and he wasn’t the only one.”

City head to Wheatsheaf Park tonight to tackle Staines Town, a ground at which they scored three times last season and still ended up on the losing side. The Swans have had a win, a draw and a defeat from their opening three games and Castle believes the home side’s defence maybe a weak point.

“It’ll be very tough against Staines, I know they went up to my local club Bishop’s Stortford and battered them and lost so they are one of those that maybe let a few goals in,” he explained.

“I’m only worried about ourselves and we’ve got to show more quality.”

Hassan Sulaiman is expected to return to the fold for City after missing Saturday’s game with work commitments but one player who will be missing is Ross Dedman.

Asked whether Dedman was likely to return soon Castle replied: “No I don’t think so. It’s a hamstring problem that just keeps on hanging about. I want him back in the squad and vying for a place in the team, the squad’s too small to be having lads who aren’t involved.

“He’s as frustrated as me, there’s no blame aspect.”

n For those of you unable to make the trip to Staines Town tonight, we will be providing live updates via our CITYLIVE service. Click on the link in the top right hand corner from 7.30pm for updates.