The busy start to the season has meant St Albans City’s usual planning and preparation has taken a bit of a hit.

In the 11 days since starting competitive fixtures, Saints have played four times and the games are continuing to come thick and fast.

Ebbsfleet United provide the opposition on Saturday at Clarence Park for a National League South fixture and while manager Ian Allinson is expecting a tough game against the recently-relegated side, he admitted that his priority had been elsewhere until Wednesday morning.

He said: “They have been a bit like us, they’ve been a bit cagey and there has not been a lot in the games.

“They are probably getting used to having a new manager coming in.

“I haven’t looked too much into them because my priority has been Hitchin, then Hampton and Concord and then Mickleover.

“I’ll be doing that over the course of the next day and myself and the coaches are now concentrating on what we need do in training for Ebbsfleet.

“Hopefully we can execute that on Saturday.

“They’ve been relegated but they’ve kept a number of their players.”

The Fleet have the same record as Saints after two games, one win and a draw.

The victory came 3-0 at Braintree Town on the opening day before a 1-1 draw at home to Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday.

It leaves them third in the table, three places above City thanks to their better goal difference.

Their FA Cup campaign ended on Tuesday night with a 9-8 penalty shoot-out defeat to fellow National League South outfit Chippenham Town.

The sides had drawn 1-1 after the 90 minutes.