St Albans City have turned down the chance to have Charlie Smith back on loan.

Smith made 10 appearances, including seven starts, and scored one goal for the Saints this season. He returned to City in January for his second spell, which ended after the 2-1 loss at Chelmsford on February 7.

Joint managers James Gray and Graham Golds had the chance to have the 19-year-old for a third stint but turned it down.

“At the moment, we have [David Keeleyside] and Manney [Soetan] - we have players that warrant game time on their own merit instead of getting players from the likes of Luton,” Gray told Saintsnet.

“If we can get him back to become solely our player, we would do that but as that wasn’t the case, this would benefit Luton more than St Albans City.

“We need to give the youngsters a chance to step up, we have three or four on the fringe to see if they can handle the week-in, week-out pressure.”