It was a tough night at the end of a tough week for St Albans City but for Ian Allinson it was a case of simply holding their hands up and admitting they were beaten by the better team.

The round trip to Torquay United covers over 400 miles and the battered and bruised City squad, plus their 11 hardy supporters, will have felt every one of them after the 4-1 loss.

The Gulls took a sixth-minute lead through Jamie Reid before Clovis Kamdjo equalised three minutes later.

But an own goal by Tom Bender before the quarter-mark put United back in front and two goals in two minutes around the hour mark from Reid and Jake Andrews finished a tough day for St Albans.

And while the Saints boss could use excuses, he admitted they found the hosts had the edge all over the park.

He said: “We can make excuses like we got here after 7 and only had a 15-minute warm-up.

“And with numbers dropping out and the shape we had to play, it hasn’t helped.

“But that’s football at the end of the day, we have to accept it.

“It’s a long trip and we’ve had to do it midweek rather than a Saturday which would have been a lot easier.

“The one thing I can’t fault is the players’ effort and endeavour and commitment but we just weren’t good enough football wise.

“Saturday there was a performance and a result there for the taking but tonight we had our backsides smacked by a good side.

“I still think by the end of the season they’re going to be in the top two or three.

“They have got good strength while our squad was a bit battered by the end.”

Saints only had four players on the bench, one of which was new goalkeeper Andrew McCorkell and another the under-the-weather David Noble, while Percy Kiangebeni and Ralston Gabriel were taking the latest step on their journey back from injury.

And Allinson, who was highly critical of his side’s defending in Saturday’s 3-2 loss at home to Chippenham Town, said this game could be a case of putting an arm around players and rebuilding belief.

He said: “We’re going through a spell where we need to get their confidence up, get them back playing as well as we can, doing the simple things and working hard as a group.

“We’ve won eight and lost eight. We don’t draw many and if we can keep picking up three points when the opportunity rises, we’ll stay in and around the play-offs.

“We have dropped down over the last couple of weeks but we’ve got to pick ourselves up for the trip to Gloucester.

“We’ve said all along it isn’t easy. It’s a tough league where every team can beat everyone else.

“We have to make sure we have a consistency to us even if we’re not going to win every game.”