Relief for City as confidence-boosting FA Trophy win lifts spirits ahead of Truro trip
Sam Merson looks to stretch the Poole defence. Picture: LEIGH PAGE - Credit: Archant
Ian Allinson was a relieved man as St Albans City got back to winning ways with a 3-1 success over Poole Town in the FA Trophy.
It snapped a run of just one win in eight games across all competitions for the Saints and sent them through to a first round proper meeting away to Whitehawk.
Rhys Murrell-Williamson came off the bench to score two, taking his tally to 10 for the season, and added to David Noble’s first-half penalty.
And the City manager was delighted with the win.
He said: “It was pleasing from my point of view as we have been in a sticky patch over the last five or six weeks.
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“But I felt we were playing good football and the spirit was still with the players so we just needed a bit of luck here and there.
“We tried to take the pressure off the players as losing becomes a habit like winning becomes a habit.
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“The players’ confidence was a bit low and the second half against Bognor last week wasn’t good enough and it left you wondering whether we had the desire.
“But when we had to dig deep [against Poole] we had a lot of desire and a lot of attitude.”
League action returns on Saturday when Saints make their longest trek of the season down to Truro City.
The trip itself is daunting enough, almost 600 miles there and back, but when they arrive in Cornwall they will be up against a White Tigers side that sit third in the National League South table, with just one defeat in the last 10 games.
“They’re a very good side and some of the mangers we’ve spoke to have said they are the best side they’ve played all season,” admitted Allinson.
“We’ve got to go there, be positive and believe we too are a good side.
“Yes, we’re going to have ups and downs where we don’t perform to the level we can.
“But we’ve got the tools to go and do it.
“Our front three can cause their back four some problems and then we’ve got to make sure we defend on set-pieces as they’ve got some big centre-halves who can cause us problems.
“It’s a long trip but you have to make these trips.
“We’ll take each game as it comes and once we get everybody back fit we’ll see where we are.”
