Jimmy Gray, St Albans City’s joint-manager, says he is still up for the fight despite the club’s precarious position in the Vanarama National League South.

He was speaking after seeing his side lose 3-1 to Gosport Borough on Tuesday, a result that followed a 4-1 reverse away to Weston-super-Mare on Saturday.

The defeats leave Saints two places and five points away from safety.

But despite the mounting pressure, Gray believes that he, and fellow manager Graham Golds, are still the right men for the job.

He said: “I put a lot of pressure on myself. I work full-time but I work a lot for St Albans. I’m out most nights of the week along with Graham.

“It’s not easy, it’s tiring, but my hearts still in it and I still want to do the job. So until I’m told I’m no longer doing it, I’ll carry on.

“People can talk and there are a lot of people around who think they can do a better job. But why don’t they put their name in the hat?

“It’s not easy, I’ll tell you that.”

Gray also believes that the squad at his disposal is one of the best he has worked with and that they just need a little bit of luck.

He said: “Every single training session, I see how hard these boys work and I know how much quality there is.

“We do feel this is the best squad on paper that we’ve had.

“This league is unforgiving and I think it is stronger this season than it was last. We came into the league on a high and it carried us a long way.

“We had a blip in the middle but came strong at the end and there’s no reason why we cannot do that again.

“If we can improve the squad then we’ll try but I’m happy with them.

“We just need to implement it out on the pitch more than we are doing. And I’m sure that we can.”

The game against Gosport saw the joint-managers make four changes from Weston-super-Mare and for a time it seemed to be working.

Gray said: “We changed it up, we changed the formation, we went bold.

“There’s no point sitting back and having another performance like Saturday and I thought it worked for us for 30 minutes.

“So I can’t complain. We’ve got a squad of players and a few of them boys didn’t let themselves down. It certainly gives us food for thought.

“I don’t have sleepless nights but I think about the game constantly, about what we need to do and how to put things right.

“We do work on things and at times in games it looks right, but then we concede a sloppy goal and it goes against us.

“I can guarantee no-one is going to be working as hard as Graham and I to arrest the situation we are in and we’ll keep doing it until we’re told otherwise.”