Ian Allinson asked for a reaction from his St Albans City after their poor performance in the FA Trophy against Cheshunt and he felt he got one in the draw at Chelmsford City.

Shaun Jeffers had put them in front in the first half at the Melbourne Stadium but Simeon Jackson equalised with a superb hit 11 minutes from time to leave the game at 1-1.

And while it wasn't a performance dripping with attacking flair, it showed him something that has been missing from Saints' performances recently - heart.

Allinson said: "What I asked for was a performance that showed we have some grit in the team.

"We've played some unbelievable football this year but lost so that was the question I asked.

"We probably wound them up too much. We have to get a happy medium where we have that aggression and we have that power and the ability to win games ugly but we also have to try and get that bit of quality.

"The two or three times we showed that quality, we opened them up massively in terms of hitting the crossbar and scoring the goal.

"But we didn’t have too many other chances in the game.

"Johnno has had a couple of things he has had to do but they haven’t really opened us up until the lad has scored a wonder strike.

"There were a couple of balls bouncing around in the box and a couple that have gone into Michael’s arms.

"There’s a lot of things we can do better. Some of our clearances weren’t good, the quality when we got on the ball wasn’t good but I asked for a reaction from the players and I felt we got that.

"We’ve set individual standards for tonight and I can’t criticise anyone. On Saturday there was criticism I could have laid at the feet of seven or eight of them.

"I’m disappointed that we couldn’t hang on because to get an ugly 1-0 win here, I’d have been over the moon with that as it will set us up nicely for the next couple of weeks."

Remarkably, although they have only managed two wins in the last seven National League South games, the point leaves them just nine points behind leaders Dorking Wanderers and with three games in hand.

"There's a long way to go," said the boss. "We’ve just taken four points from our last two away games and that’s an average of two points per game.

"We have to be looking at that for the rest of the season but sometimes you can’t win every game.

"It would have been great to win against Chelmsford, it would have been great for the changing room and the club.

"Everyone was low after Saturday.

"I’ve spoken to one or two about how they can improve their performances.

"We can play a lot better, I know that. We have good players who can play good football but sometimes you have to go and win your battles.

"We did that."