Adaptation was the name of the game for St Albans City and manager Ian Allinson was delighted at the way his players secured the 2-1 win at Truro City.
Saints were well-worth the success in what is their longest trip in of the year in the Vanarama National League South.
Sam Merson fired them ahead on 71 minutes with Charlie Walker getting the second 10 minutes later.
And although Tyler Walker pulled one back from the penalty spot in the 90th minute, City held on.
It was their second victory in a row following the FA Trophy win over Poole Town last week but their first in the league since October 7.
Allinson said: “[Our form] has been patchy but I felt the win over Poole gave us a little bit of confidence back.
“We’ve trained hard this week and obviously having centre-halves back from injury is makes a big difference.
“It allows us to have shape elsewhere and the surprise was it took us 60 minutes to take the lead when we could have been four-up by then.
“It was a really good performance and I’m really proud of the lads.
“They adapted well, it was an early start, but I think we thoroughly deserved it.”
He was also pleased for the two strikers, who scored in the same game for the fourth time this year.
“It’s nice for the two forwards to come in and score as it gives the confidence they deserve and need,” he said.
“They’ve not scored as many in the last few weeks as we would have liked. We’ve had to rely on Rhys Murrell-Williamson and Zane Banton.
“[Merson’s] movement on the two chances before he scored was excellent and a little bit more composure in that 12-yard area in front of goal and he would have scored.
“But at least he got there, that’s the main thing. He made the runs and got there and could have a hat-trick in the second half.
The City boss also explained how they approached the almost 600 mile-long journey.
He said: “We made a decision to travel on the day, rightly or wrongly, and it’s up to players to adapt.
“The way we’ve tried to do it this year is get a better coach than we would normally and it’s helped players to relax.
“They’ve got on the coach at 7am, all had breakfast by 8.30am, had a sleep, played cards, did what they needed to do and then we had a pre-match meeting on the bus at 11.30am and were here by 1pm.
“It was a fantastic trip down and the players have adapted really, really well.
“We’ll by back by 11pm and it will have been a great day.
“For me, we’ve done it the correct way.
“We’ve not asked players to take time off work and we’ve not asked players to sit around all morning, which is what would have happened if we came down the day before.
“We put it to the players and this is what they wanted to do and they’ve repaid us by getting the three points.”
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