James Gray admitted the St Albans City fans had the hair on the back of his neck standing up as they cheered their teams back into the Conference.

Around 1,500 fans made the short trip to Chesham United for the play-off final and they more than outmatched their counterparts, singing from the first whistle to the last.

In fact, so many fans showed up that the kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes. Still people missed out after the police forced the closure of the turnstiles.

“They made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We couldn’t see them when we showed up but we could hear them,” he said.

“Then the ref said ‘we have to put the game back, are you alright with that?’ The information was that [the fans] were queuing back to the roundabout and up the road so I said we have to delay it, we can’t have any incidents outside the crowd.

“As soon as they were in here, wow. What a crescendo of noise, they never stopped.

“If we can play in front of that every week it gives the players a lift. They boys were inspired by them.”