ST ALBANS City boss David Howell felt his side only had themselves to blame for giving away goals in their 3-2 loss to St Neots Town on Saturday.

Striker Lewis Toomey put City one up in the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division clash, only for the hosts to level through Ollie Thorne on the stroke of half-time.

After the break Stefan Moore put Town ahead and Ade Yusuff made it 3-1.

Sean Shields struck a fine 25 yard effort into the top corner making it 3-2 late on, but his side could not force an equaliser.

Howell said: “The lads are disappointed, they’re disappointed again in the fact that we played well, worked hard, we had a little bit of a dip in the second half, but again we’ve given them the goals.

“To come in at 1-1 at half-time St Neots were a bit fortunate to get the goal right on half-time and I think we deserved to come in in front.

“What’s been the case in the past is we’ve had a lot of possession and chances created and been the dominant team, we’ve not got the return for it and it was the same thing again today [Saturday].

“The first 45 minutes I can’t fault the lads for their work-rate and trying to get the ball down to pass and play to create chances and play the right way.

“But to give away the goal right on half-time was a bit of a blow and so it shows again after 45 minutes we had nothing to show for it.”

A fragmented second half saw City ship two goals and give themselves an uphill task.

“We never really got going second half and the game was very bitty,” added Howell.

“We were trying and they were countering us all the time and we didn’t really deal with it properly and we played into their hands a bit.

“I said to the lads recently that we’ve not been defending really as well as I’d like and so there was a lot of focus on that on Thursday [at training].

“The defenders knew they had to try to step it up today [Saturday] but unfortunately we still gave them a bit of a leg up or a chance to get in front at 2-1.

“Suddenly we find ourselves, in a game which was 1-1 with not a lot happening 3-1 down and then we had to chase the game to try to get back in it.”

“[Sean] Shields was good for us first half, he got on the ball and found Lewis for his goal and he scored that screamer to give us a chance to get something out of the game in the dying minutes, but it wasn’t to be.”