St Albans City welcome Ebbsfleet United, the title favourites, to Clarence Park this Saturday as their uncompromising season continues, kick-off 3pm.

Herts Advertiser: The Saints celebrate Jack Green goal. Picture: Leigh PageThe Saints celebrate Jack Green goal. Picture: Leigh Page (Image: Archant)

The campaign kicked-off on Saturday with a goalless draw at Gosport Borough, a top six team in the division last season, and, on Monday, they were beaten 3-1 by Oxford City, another top six team, although in last year’s Conference North.

This weekend, big-spending Ebbsfleet, the bookies’ favourite to earn automatic promotion, come to town.

“We’re underdogs in every game; we’ve only been in the league one season so there isn’t a side we should think we can roll over,” said joint manager James Gray.

“We’ve got an underdog mentality. We know we need to work very hard and get a little bit of luck. We need to get our training right this week and go into Saturday with a game plan to get something out of the game.”

One thing is almost certain, Ebbsfleet, who St Albans beat 1-0 at home in the penultimate game of last season thanks to Jack Green’s first goal for the club, won’t pose the same threat as Oxford did on Monday.

Mike Ford’s team was superb on Tuesday and Gray believes that not many teams will be as good.

“From what I saw of Ebbsfleet last season, Oxford have given us a better game,” he said.

“We will have to dig deep, nullify their threats and be better going forward. Every game will be difficult because the league is better this season so we need to get better quickly.”

The manager is also keen to produce a performance that gets the fans involved in the game.

“I think we need to get the fans behind us – that comes when you’re creating chances and scoring goals. We’ll hopefully put that right on Saturday,” he said.