A tough week ended with a 1-0 defeat for St Albans City at Dulwich Hamlet and manager Ian Allinson believes the efforts of his team may have finally caught up with his side.
It lacked the performance levels of the victories over Slough Town and Welling United and in the end Nyren Clunis’s first-half goal was enough to keep the three points in south London.
And the Saints boss pointed at sharpness being the thing lacking.
He said: “It’s been a tough week and where we expected three tough games, we got three tough games.
“We were under no illusions with Dulwich. They’ve probably be a little inconsistent but they’re only about four points behind.
“We know how tough this league is and if we’re not quite good enough on the day we’re going to suffer defeats like this.
“We had a lot of possession first half but everything was a bit too slow. We looked leggy.
“I don’t think we looked sharp until the three subs came on and then we looked like we might cause them problems.
“I can’t complain with the effort the lads have put in over the last eight days.”
The hosts provided no shocks for the City management team who have watched them three times this season and received a glowing report from Wealdstone boss Bobby Wilkinson.
But if there was one frustration it was the lack of a point.
Allinson said: “We shouldn’t take too much away from Dulwich, they were better than us on the day.
“We put two tremendous performances in last week and on Tuesday and to be fair we haven’t been far off today.
“We just haven’t created the chances.
“There’s an inconsistency in terms of following three points with three points.
“The only thing we should have done is come away with a 0-0. That’s the disappointing thing.
“If we can’t win the game, then let’s make sure Dulwich don’t win either.
“We need to defend better than we did in the first half.”
The result remarkably leaves St Albans in fifth place after none of the sides in the top seven this morning were able to win.
Yet also as remarkably the home win means Dulwich Hamlet have closed the gap to Saints to just four points, while still being 11 places behind in 16th.
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