St Albans City return to Clarence Park on Saturday and captain Ben Martin is determined to give the home fans something to cheer about when Bishop’s Stortford come calling.

The Saints opened the Vanarama Conference South season full of hope after last year’s promotion and a solid pre-season. But everything against Hayes and Yeading was flat: the performance was below sub-par, the noise level barely registered above audible and City lost 1-0.

It was hardly the kind of display to draw people back to Clarence Park. But, a thrilling 3-2 triumph over Staines Town and a backs-against-the-wall 1-0 win at Farnborough later, Martin is determined to bring Saints’ away form back home and impress the fans.

“It’s a weird one,” said Martin on St Albans’ performances at Clarence Park.

“The last two away games of last season we played really well and you start thinking ‘is this team suited to playing away?’ but I don’t think so. We didn’t step up in the first game and then had a reaction in the second. It is something we need to put right so the fans keep coming back.

“We need to keep going from the last two games; the confidence is high. There’s nothing to fear in this league, as far as I’m concerned, and we’re all confident in our own games.”

He added: “There wasn’t much atmosphere at the first game but it wasn’t the fans’ fault; they need something to cheer about and we didn’t give them anything. Hopefully we can put that right on Saturday.

“And three wins from four will put us in a good position going into the Bank Holiday Monday game against Eastbourne.”

James Comley scored the only goal of the game in Saturday’s win over Farnborough and at the other end City kept their first clean sheet of the 2014/15 campaign, including pre-season.

“We started well in the first half [at Farnborough] and had most of the possession and got a lucky goal, if you want to call it that,” Martin told the Herts Ad.

“The second half was frustrating because we probably could have made it more comfortable but instead we held on. We showed the defensive qualities that we have.

“The defence talked before the game and said the number one priority is to get a clean sheet. Any good side needs to limit how many chances the other team has because everyone is more clinical [at this level] so we need to be on the ball and concentrate.”