Ian Allinson was in no mood to look for the positives after his St Albans City fell to a shameful home defeat to struggling Chelmsford City.

The Clarets are still deep in relegation trouble but the 3-0 success at Clarence Park was as welcome as it was deserved.

For Saints though it is another hammer blow to their play-off challenge which is struggling to keep its head above water.

The City boss said: "We have had nine games with only one win and one draw.

"This was the hardest of the seven defeats to take. We have had opportunities in all of the other games.

"We have to rely on ourselves being better with balls into the box and their first two goals were from free headers.

"It isn’t good enough, it isn’t acceptable. I’m the first to protect players and I have done this season but I cannot protect any of them for the first half.

"The one thing you have to do in football is work harder than the opposition and we didn’t."

Saints are now down to eighth but with five games remaining, they are only one point behind Havant & Waterlooville in the seventh and final play-off place.

However, three of those five games are against sides above them and Allinson knows that they cannot produce another abject performance like the one against Chelmsford, a game which brought a striking resemblance to St Albans' season as a whole.

The boss said: "That probably summed up the second half of our season.

"We went to Hungerford last week and put an unbelievable performance in and we expected so much more [against Chelmsford].

"That’s a massive disappointment, especially the first half.

"There has been an inconsistency, our home form hasn’t been good enough and we have been well beaten.

"We created two or three good chances in the second half but then we’ve been undone by a poor goal.

"He’s gone the full length of the pitch and we have to defend better than that."