Strikers start pre-season with a bang to the delight of St Albans City’s Ian Allinson
Shaun Jeffers (right) takes the congratulations for St Albans City against Hashtag United. Picture: JIM STANDEN - Credit: Archant
Two games and 11 goals has left Ian Allinson delighted with St Albans City’s start to pre-season.
Saints parted company with last year’s top scorer Joe Iaciofano and Sam Merson with the boss going out to pick up four new strikers during the summer.
And after a 5-2 win over step five Hashtag United and a 6-0 success at step six Stotfold he is delighted with the new men.
Shaun Jeffers has four, Mitchell Weiss three and Joe Chidyausiku two while Solomon Nwabuokei and Romeo Akinola have also weighed in with one each.
Allinson said: “You have to take into consideration the level of football we’re playing against, and that’s not being disrespectful to Stotfold or Hashtag, but you can only play what’s in front of you and the boys looked hungry.
“I was pleased the players we brought in to score goals are scoring. That’s nine out of the 11 we’ve scored that have gone to forwards.
“It’s getting that pairing now. We’ve got four forwards fighting for two places which is brilliant.
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“We’ve probably never had that since I’ve been here, we’ve normally had just three, and they are all scoring which is good.”
That fact is tempering Allinson’s excitement levels.
City don’t start competitive fixtures until October 3 with an FA Cup second qualifying round match, the National League South season starting in the week after that.
And the Saints manager says their preparations will only be stepped up from next week.
He said: “We haven’t really started as the season being put back to October has put a bit of a spoke in our preparations.
“We’re ticking over and from this weekend is where we’ll start increasing what we want to do.
“But I liked some of the ways we won the ball back [against Stotfold]. We seemed to work really quickly to get it and then we had a bit of composure.
“Solomon has progressed over the summer, Kyren [Wiltshire] has brought a little bit of quality in alongside David Noble and we know what we’ll get with Munashe [Sundire].
“We can dovetail with the bodies in there and it is the same with the forwards.
“But we can’t get carried away with what we are doing now. What I would say though is we didn’t do this last year.
“They looked bright and we just have to make sure we keep them at that level.”
