An excited Ian Allinson is looking forward to further progress in the FA Trophy after watching St Albans City win 3-0 against Cray Wanderers in round two.

Goals from Kyran Wiltshire, Zane Banton and Mitchell Weiss sent Saints beyond their first match for only the second time in the last seven attempts.

It means a home game on Saturday with National League Sutton United and Allinson is relishing the fact his high-flying side will go into that game as underdogs.

He said: “If Sutton take it seriously it is going to be a really tough game. We just have to see what type of side they put out.

“If they don’t put a full-strength side out it gives us half-chance. If they are full strength it gives us a slim chance.

“But we have nothing to lose and it’s a great feeling to have going into a game.

“We’re the underdogs where when we’ve played Hitchin, Mickleover, Bishop’s Stortford and Cray we were the favourites.

“That’s not a nice feeling and we had to overcome all of that.

“[Saturday] will be good for the club. We can probably get 900 in here and hopefully we’ll sell out.

“The crowd were great [against Cray]. There was less than 200 but they have actually made some noise which was fantastic.

“Saturday was brilliant in front of 700 and hopefully they are happy with some of the football we are playing.”

Tuesday’s game at Clarence Park was a tight affair early on with the Isthmian League Premier Division side starting with plenty of promise.

The sending off of Lee Lewis just before half-time for a trip on Weiss had an effect though with all three goals coming in the second period.

And Allinson had sympathy for the Wands who were forced to down tools in November due to the government’s restrictions on non-elite football.

He said: “Cray are in the middle of a horrible period of time.

“They have come off the back of a five-week break with only one serious game in there.

“We looked sharp and so you have to feel sorry for them because some of the football they played in that first 25 minutes was a handful.

“The sending-off obviously helped but we’ll take what we got.

“We’ve been given passage into the next round and we’ll obviously accept it.”