ASSISTANT manager Mark Peters believes St Albans City can take strength from their performance at Basingstoke on Saturday. Peters was a tower of strength at centre half during the game and believes the performance of 10- man City, who had goalkeeper Paul

ASSISTANT manager Mark Peters believes St Albans City can take strength from their performance at Basingstoke on Saturday.

Peters was a tower of strength at centre half during the game and believes the performance of 10- man City, who had goalkeeper Paul Bastock sent off in the 33rd minute, shows they can keep the league's leading sides at bay.

"We feel stronger for what's happened today," said Peters. "They were looking to pull us into holes that we didn't want to go into, we made the decision to go with two banks of four and use Gary's (Cohen) strength of running which was just fantastic today. Him and Godfrey (Poku), the amount of land they've covered is just frightening and they've done it for the team."

"At the back we've just made life easy for Michael (Emery). Michael's made three or four great saves and like I've just said I think we feel a lot stronger in there that we know now that we can keep even the top teams out even with ten men."

The former Kings Lynn defender felt that Bastock's dismissal for bringing down Basingstoke captain Robert Rice summed up City's fortunes of late.

"Not to bemoan our luck but again we've gone down to 10 men and again it was quite early on and we've had to dig in."

"They started sharply in the first 15 minutes and I thought we'd weathered the storm and we then looked very comfortable. We just got done by a bit of a schoolboy error. A corner for us and they've broke all the way to the opposite end and that shouldn't happen at our level."

"Bazza's just said that he's spread himself, the guy's had a shot it's gone wide and the referee and linesman have given a penalty and sent him off. It just seems to be the way our luck's going but we've dug in fantastically after not a great performance last week."

Youth team defender Conner Baker was given his full debut at left back by Steve Castle while another youngster, Rob Magwood, made his debut from the substitute's bench and Peters' paid tribute to the performance of the team's less experienced players.

"The young lads have done fantastic and this is why they get involved in training. On a weekly basis, they're coming in, they're getting to know the lads so that when they do come in it's not a big shock to them," revealed Peters.

"They're part of us and everything we do. They've done fantastic today and it shows that we've got strength in depth - okay they're young but we're happy to throw young people in there."

City's goal came courtesy of Gary Cohen's superb work-rate and good awareness from Drew Roberts and it was a goal that showcased the two players' attributes perfectly.

"This is what Gary's all about, he never lets any centre half have any time on the ball," said City's assistant manager. "The lad's there trying to shield it out, he's got a leg round hooked it and anticipation from Drew, that's why he's in the team, that's why he gets goals because he anticipates what other people are going to do and he hits good areas and it was just a nice simple finish."

"He's made the 10 yards to get there which is this striking instinct so fair play to Drew."

Roberts was a central figure in City's best chance of the second period creating an opportunity for Jonathan O'Donnell which the young midfielder curled narrowly wide but Peters refused to criticise the youngster.

"It's easy to say from anywhere on the pitch he should have done better," explained the 37-year-old.

"Drew's done well to get him the chance and he's seen his opportunity to curl it because he was being closed down and it's a couple of inches away. We're happy with the result considering the circumstances - that would've just been the icing on the cake.