Ian Allinson was pleased with the character shown by his St Albans City team as they came from behind to beat Braintree Town 2-1 – a far cry from what would probably have happened last year he admitted.

Romario Dunne had nodded the Irons in front on the stroke of half-time but their hunt for a first National League South point of the campaign was dashed by goals from Zane Banton and Mitchell Weiss.

And the City boss said half-time allowed them the time to put things right from a disappointing first-half.

He said: “Last year we would have lost or wouldn’t have been in a position where we could chase the game.

“We got in some really good positions in the first half and put in some quality deliveries but didn’t seem to have enough bodies in there.

“And we always looked susceptible to the counter attack, which worried me.

“We took the two chances we got but we still didn’t really create a lot like we have been doing.

“But you can’t play well every week and we’ll take the three points.

“In the first half we were a little bit slow in what we did.

“When we quickened things up and sharpened things in the second half we looked a lot better. I was pleased with how that happened.

“Zane was excellent in the second half, he started to unlock a few doors and get into some good areas.

“He took his goal well.”

Saints are now the only undefeated side in the division, with four wins and a draw from their opening five games.

And while pleased about that, Allinson said he would prefer to put teams away far earlier than they have been doing.

He said: “We’ve got some good character in there and we’ve [come from behind to win] against Ebbsfleet and we’ve done it here but we can’t keep doing that. We need to get in front and put to teams to bed early.

“We got a little bit anxious and we have to rise above that.

“We weren’t at the races in the first half, we were a little bit off the pace, and whether that was because we’ve not had a game [for 10 days], I don’t know.

“We trained hard on Saturday, we trained for nearly two hours and put on a really good session, but I don’t think that showed in the performance in the first half.”