Ian Allinson is under no illusions that his St Albans City side will be in for a tough afternoon after being paired with his old club Boreham Wood in the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup.

The Hertfordshire rivals clash at Clarence Park on Saturday week and Allinson, who spent over seven years in charge at Meadow Park, was impressed with what he saw after a scouting visit on Tuesday.

He said: “They’re a good side. You don’t get into the top eight in the National League if you’re not.

“They’ll be difficult to overcome but we will have nothing to lose. And it’s like anything in the FA Cup. We will have a chance.”

City made it through with a battling 2-1 win over Wessex Premier League side Bridport.

Shaun Lucien had put them ahead before Percy Kiangebeni got his first goal for the club before half-time.

But Bridport came back in the second half and put Saints under pressure late on.

Next up though is a return to Vanarama National League South action when Saints host Bath City.

City had a great start to the season, and currently sit third in the table, but have won just once in the last six outings.

Allinson though is not worried and points to the fact they have only lost twice in that period.

“It would be nice to return to winning games of course,” he said.

“And although it’s only six points from the last six games, we got 18 from the first six.

“So I have to look at over the course of the 12 games and we’re exactly where we wanted to be with two points per game.

“We’re not going to win every single game but hopefully we’re not going to draw too many as draws in this league tend to cause you problems in the long term.

“But it will be nice to get back to winning ways before the FA Cup again on Saturday week.”

One player who will not be involved is Tomi Adeloye whose short stay at Clarence Park is over after he agreed terms with Hartlepool United.

That was always likely though said the City boss.

He said: “He had had been on trial with Hartlepool and we knew they might want to sign him so when we brought him in it was with the condition that if did he could go.

“We were really impressed with him in training but he never got the chance to show it in a game.”