James Gray is hoping for a ‘massive response’ when City travel to Bashley on Saturday after seeing his side stumble to a 2-1 win at home against Bedford Town.

Goals from Chris Henry and James Kaloczi gave City a 2-0 lead but they were pegged back by Sam Macrae’s 77th minute goal. Once again, the Saints were indebted to Tom Ward, Ben Martin, Lee Chappell, Kerrea Gilbert and Paul Bastock for holding off a fightback as they held on for the win.

Speaking after the game, joint manager Gray admitted the only positive to take out of the game was the result.

“It was a poor performance but we got three points. We need to be better so we’re going into the play-offs in good form,” he said.

“You can lambast players but they got the points.

“I want a massive response against Bashley; it needs to be a hell of a lot better. Too many players are letting us down. It’s difficult to address all the time because the players are far better than what they’re showing.

“Before the game we targeted nine points in the next three games (Bedford, Basley and Burnham); we got three on the board.”

Bedford, who sacked their management team today (Monday), went into the game without a point in the league since November 26, leading many to expect a whitewash at Clarence Park.

Gray, however, said his side is not in that kind of match form, a stark contrast to what he sees in training every week.

“As soon as we scored we took our foot off the gas and at 1-0 of course they were going to work hard. We need to bury teams like that,” he conceded.

“There were too many players off their game; they looked like they wanted to put their sunglasses on and sun bathe. The unforced errors were frightening, the decision making isn’t there and we conceded a schoolboy goal that made it interesting.

“But, we’re playing badly and picked up seven points out of the last nine.”

He added: “We’re unbelievable in training so I’m not sure if it is stage fright in front of a big crowd but it’s not good enough and we need to be better.”