Manager Ian Allinson has made an impassioned plea to all St Albans City fans to put aside their differences and give their support for the good of the club.

Hopes that the FA Cup would provide welcome relief to the National League South troubles were extinguished when they were beaten 4-1 at Weymouth.

It means attention turns back to their stuttering league form which has seen them collect just two wins in the opening 12 games, a sequence that has left them fourth from bottom in the table.

Their next game comes on Saturday, designated as Non League Day, when City take on fellow strugglers Eastbourne Borough and Allinson hopes that the fans, some of whom are boycotting home games because of their anger at the summer's rise in ticket prices, will return and give their backing to the beleaguered squad.

He said: "We have to get the whole of St Albans behind us because we certainly need the crowd.

"We have to ask all the supporters who have boycotted this season to come back in and give the club a lift and give the players a lift and try and get us back on song.

"We need three points urgently next week.

"It's a six-pointer as simple as that, even at this stage. I'm not going to pull any punches. With our performances and the results we have on the board, we have to get some results.

"The longer we stay in this situation the harder it is to get out.

"I've been in it before and the one thing I won't do is panic but we have to improve our performances."

The City boss says he accepts responsibility for some decisions with the squad building but won't criticise the confidence-shot players who he says are still working hard for the badge.

"We have to be careful we don't criticise the players because they are a bit low and we have to build their confidence up," he said.

"We've looked long and hard this week at where we are and what is going wrong.

"We've got some really talented players but at the moment from the front to the back we can't defend.

"We've gone with a lot of younger legs this year and that's caught us out a little bit from the experience side.

"Recruitment hasn't been good enough from my side and I take full responsibility for that.

"We have to make ourselves harder to play against but we've certainly got to turn the form around quite quickly because too many more defeats will force the confidence out of the bottom floor.

"I won't criticise the players for not trying and every single one of them tried hard [at Weymouth]. They put a good shift in but we weren't good enough in both boxes."