St Albans City are set to welcome Chelmsford to Clarence Park on Saturday (3pm), with boss Ian Allinson looking for his side to take their chances following a frustrating New Year’s Day defeat at Hemel Hempstead.

Saints saw their seven-game unbeaten run come to an end in a 2-0 loss and have taken just nine points from their last 10 National League South matches.

Eight of the nine have come in the last five fixtures, though, and Allinson, who will be without the suspended Zane Banton for the next three games, said: “We will take stock on Thursday, patch one or two up and hopefully we’ll be okay for Saturday.

“We’ve got a squad now, it’s the first time we’ve had a squad of 18 although without Zane it’s 17. But you can only use three of your five subs, we’ve seen we’ve gone with only three subs on the bench at times this season.

“We’ve got to go and face Chelmsford, it will be a tough game. I’ve watched them a few times but on our day I fancy us against anybody.

“All we can keep doing is try to win our home games, try to win every game. I don’t go into any game not trying to win it, it’s not a situation where we set up to defend, we’ve always played the same system.

“But it’s a tough game, tough league, tough season, so we’ve got to keep doing what we’re trying to do, try to win games of football, and when opportunities come along we’ve got to take them.”

Allinson had to take Tarik Moore-Azille off due to injury at Vauxhall Road and revealed Sam Merson had also picked up a knock on his Achilles.

But he is hoping his squad can cope with their next challenge, adding: “Most sides are exactly the same. If you get injuries you’re going to struggle.We’ve got to patch Tarik up as quick as we can, patch ‘Merse’ up and see where we come.

“I fancy us to beat anybody in this league on our day and we’ve got to make sure Saturday is our day. We knew it was going to be a tough period, but we picked up points. It’s going to be a long, hard season, we’ve got to play Chelmsford on Saturday but the season is going to take a long time before it gets sorted out who is going to be in the play-offs and who’s not in the play-offs.

“We’ve got lots of games. I believe we’ve got a squad here and if they believe in themselves in terms of what we’re trying to do, we will be picking up points.”