A much-improved attitude from St Albans City helped them negotiate a potential FA Cup banana-skin against Cambridge City.

Saints had raced into an early 2-0 lead at Clarence Park on Saturday but their EvoStik Southern League Division One East visitors fought back to salvage a 3-3 draw.

And there would have been concerns when City went 2-0 again in the replay at Cambridge’s temporary home at St Ives Town on Monday.

But Saints managed the game far better, including during a 20-minute halt to proceedings when the floodlights failed.

And that was the pleasing point for St Albans’ manager Ian Allinson.

He said: “The mentality of the players was a lot different to what it was on Saturday.

“We spoke at length then and before the replay about what was expected from us because we fell short of our standards in the first game after going 2-0 up.

“We could have quite easily been out of the FA Cup on Saturday because Cambridge had chances.

“But we had a second chance and I thought the players were really professional and once we went 2-0 up, I felt we bossed the game. Charlie Walker was outstanding. He led the line from the start and really set the tone for us to go out and put them under pressure.

“Attitude wins lots of matches and our attitude on Saturday wasn’t good enough.

“We’re not the finished article, we know that. We’ve got a long way to go but we’ve got a squad that’s willing to listen and learn, we’ve got a squad that works hard and we’ve got a squad who wants to do well.

“This keeps our season ticking over.”

They will face the winner of another replay between Bridport and Cadbury Heath, which took place last night after the Herts Ad had gone to press.

But before that City have two tough league games, starting with a visit to Whitehawk on Saturday, who brought Steve King back to the club as manager just last week.

Allinson said: “By all accounts and from the videos we’ve seen, they’re actually playing well, certainly at home.

“They’ve brought David Ijaha in and there’s talk of three or four more which I expect to happen.

“They’ll be a rejuvenated side.”