St Albans City host National League South title-chasers Ebbsfleet United on Saturday as they look to haul themselves out of a poor run of results.

Saints were beaten 1-0 by second bottom Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday which was their fifth league loss in six matches, the other a draw at Chelmsford City.

Following the weekend’s loss, boss Ian Allinson said: “I’m hurting at the moment, it’s tough.

“Losing is not something I like doing, it’s a tough spell for everybody, but we have to keep believing in what we are doing.

“We tried a different formation and I thought it worked first half.

“I felt we looked quite bright, we were on top and had some chances.

“Young Joe [Robinson] should have scored with a header and we went in quite comfortable at half-time.”

However, St Albans conceded the only goal of the game within a minute of them restarting the second half.

“Second half, due to concentration levels, after 30 seconds we were 1-0 down,” he said.

“It was a shambles of a goal with people not doing their jobs properly.

“Then it’s tough because, all credit to Bishop’s Stortford, they got everybody behind the ball, but apart from one Shaun Lucien shot we never really caused them any problems.

“They saw out the game quite comfortably in the end.”

City sit eighth in the table 10 points off the play-off places.

With eight games left of the season, Allinson knows he needs his players to return to the kind of form which had seen them well inside the play-off places earlier in the campaign in order to finish as high as possible.

“Too many players look like they are waiting for the summer already which is disappointing because as a manager it’s down to me to motivate them,” he added.

“It’s down to me to get them performing to the level they were and at the moment it’s tough because we can’t get them to perform at the level they were.

“We need to have an increase in our performances to what they are at the moment because they are not good enough.”