Shaun Jeffers says he did have options to move elsewhere in the summer but ultimately staying at St Albans City was the best of the lot.

The top scorer last season at the National League South club had a number of suitors over the last few months but is happy to remain at the club where he has enjoyed the best form of his career.

"It’s good to be back," he said after the 2-0 pre-season friendly loss to Stevenage at a sun-drenched Clarence Park. "I’m glad to be back here and back on the pitch.

"The best option for me was here. The whole time I have been here, I have been made to feel welcome and I have had my best spell of my career here.

"I just want to carry on that.

"It was a disappointing end to last year but I want to rectify that and hopefully go one step better.

"We’ve probably played a full season which would have brought the title. Unfortunately half of it was the COVID-hit season and the other half was the beginning of last year.

"Maybe the number of games and the cup run caught up with us and we were disappointed with the form at the back end of the season.

"We just want to start again and learn from our mistakes."

And he believes that keeping the majority of last season's team, with only a few additions, will be a benefit going into the new campaign.

He said: "It’s good that we’ve got the core of last year’s squad. We know what we’ve got in the changing rooms and we know that we can produce the results.

"It was nothing to do with our ability.

"We can do well, I’m positive about that.

"We know we can swap things around and we’ve got versatility.

"We know we can be a threat to other teams and we can be."