St Albans City manager Ian Allinson has refuted claims that they don't want promotion - but admits that the time to cut loose is fast approaching.

His team has plummeted down the table and are not out of the National League South play-off places with the end of the season fast approaching.

Their latest outing ended in a 1-0 defeat at home to Ebbsfleet United and means they have lost four of their last five games, leaving them behind Dulwich Hamlet on goal difference.

"We just have to win some games of football," said Allinson. "We have nine games to go and we know we have to win maybe five or six of them to have an opportunity of getting in there.

"All of the teams around us don’t seem to want to get in there either.

"But we’ve taken one point out of 15 and we know that is not good enough and we know that is not acceptable.

"The boys have tried, of course they have, and they have put the effort in.

"We have a little bit of luck go against us recently. We’ve hit the post, hit the crossbar and had penalties go against us.

"[Against Ebbsfleet] the goal was deflected, but we had all of that go for us at the start of the season.

"You have to accept the rough with the smooth but I still believe in this squad."

The entertainment factor at Clarence Park was atrocious but Allinson admitted that their heavy defeat at Stonebridge Road last month tipped their hand to play tactically.

He said: "They taught us a bit of a lesson. It was 5-0 and it could have been more.

"It’s just a shame they scored when they did because we were on the verge of letting the shackles off and having a go at them.

"They didn’t really open us up. They caused us one or two problems with the way they played but we nullified most of that.

"We spoke individually to the boys before the match and they did their jobs lovely.

"The way they responded to what we asked them to do was excellent, we just needed a bit more quality in the final third.

"The final cross or final decision is what let us down in the end."

And "letting the shackles off" and playing in a way that is reminiscent of the free-flowing football that got them out of trouble when he first arrived at the club is something that is playing on his mind.

"We have spoken about it," Allinson admitted. "The personnel we have now is different. We had big characters in that side.


"We had players who were good in the air then and the shape of the squad now is different.

"At some stage we are going to have to go and get goals but we’ve tried that for the last few weeks.

"We went to Billericay and Eastbourne with two up front but we didn’t score in those games and that has been our problem since Christmas.

"We haven’t scored with the same fluency we had before that.

"We have to be careful we don’t undo all the good work by being silly.

"Against Concord we were attacking and attacking but got undone by a ball over the top.

"It’s a difficult one and we have got some tough games coming up."