St Albans City suffered their first defeat in pre-season as they lost 2-0 away to Biggleswade Town, writes Paige Simmonds.

Two goals in two minutes midway through the second half, the first by Joe White and the second by Jack Bradshaw condemned Saints to defeat in what was dubbed the Allinson derby, with son Lee getting the better of dad Ian.

And the former City assistant manager was pleased with how his Waders side had played.

Speaking to HertsAdSport, Lee Allinson said: "I felt we got to grips with the game and caused St Albans lots of problems. In the second half I thought we didn't dominate because they were very good going forward but we certainly made a good match of it."

Saints had started the game with a number of trialists but it was while the majority of their first-team regulars were on the pitch that Biggleswade scored.

"That kind of surprised me but we had a fantastic energy about us in the second half," Allinson admitted. "We pressed and worked them really hard."

The match had started with the hosts on the front foot and forced a brilliant save inside two minutes by Dean Snedker.

They also hit the post but the half ended goal-less.

Saints swapped things around at the start of the second half withthe likes of David Longe-King and Sam Merson coming on with Rhys Murrell-Williamson and Joe Iaciofano among those coming on later in the game.

But the goals killed things of although City thought they had scored when a spectacular effort from Merson from the half-way line was clawed away from goal by the keeper, with supporters claiming it was a "ball-width over".

But despite the loss the younger Allinson saw enough in his old side to think they will do well this year.

He said: "I've said for a while that the National League South is the toughest out of all the non-leagues this year but I think they'll be a really exciting side.

"They have loads of goals in them and if they get the aggressive side of the game right they'll have a good chance of making the play-offs."