Copy boring old Arsenal way says City boss as pressure mounts on St Albans’ players

Ian Allinson wants St Albans City to follow the example of George Graham’s Arsenal as he tries to keep Saints’ play-off charge going.

The City manager was speaking after a third successive 2-2 draw for his side, this one away to Welling United, left them eight points adrift in 11th spot with time running out on their National League South season.

And the former Gunner feels that putting the ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ chant into action on the pitch would be a perfect way to start clawing their way back up the table.

He said: “I will put pressure on these players as they’ve got to understand what that’s like. We’ve got two home games now and we’ve got to get six points.

“If the players feel the pressure is on them then that’s because it is. I want six points and I wanted three points at Welling.

“The players have got to really step up to the plate and go and score some goals and keep some clean sheets.

“We’ve conceded too many goals all season. The last few weeks we’ve defended like novices.

“It looks like we have to score three goals every time we play a game just to get a win.

“That’s not right.

“Maybe we need to get some boring 1-0’s and be like the old Arsenal of many years ago.

“But at least it will give me three points and I’ll feel a little bit happier on a Saturday night.”

Saturday’s draw at Park View Road saw City take the lead through a Zane Banton header on 10 minutes before former City old boy, Josh Hill, fired the Wings ahead.

But Sam Merson levelled from the penalty spot late on and with Welling down to nine men following the dismissals of Danny Mills and Arnaud Mendy, Saints had chances to grab a vital win.

Allinson said: “We were excellent for 25 minutes in the first half.

“The shape we played caused them some problems, we were getting into some good areas, had gone 1-0 up and then hit the post with another good opportunity and I felt comfortable.

“Second half though we were very passive. We never really got going and it looked like we wanted to protect what we’d got.

“But that’s what we didn’t want them to do. We spoke at length at half-time about being brave on the ball and frustrating them.

“But we didn’t do that and the two goals we concede were really poor goals.

“It’s a shame as its stuff we continually work on but unfortunately we’ve got players that are not grasping what’s being told.”