Ian Allinson joked the watching Luke Garrard would have been "over the moon" with what he saw as St Albans City scrambled to a draw at Tonbridge Angels.

There was a smile on the face and a glint in the eye as he said it, but the City boss was well aware that the performance in the 0-0 National League South draw was not up to scratch.

But he also believes that the FA Cup second round tie at Garrard's Boreham Wood will be one of those typical games where the form book is thrown out of the window.

Allinson said: "I don’t think you can take anything from what people have seen over the last five weeks.

"Monday will be an entirely different scenario.

"It’s a derby and there will be a large crowd in there. You’ve got TV cameras too.

"They’ll obviously be favourites and they have a really good side this year. They’ve done very well.

"It’s going to be tough, we know that and I’m under no illusions, but we have got a chance.

"We said that against Forest Green so we have to go there and see where we end up."

The Saints manager also said the lessons learnt from the previous round, when they humbled League Two Forest Green Rovers, will be put into place, with a pre-match meal among the list of things to do.

"We’ve got it all planned, he said. "We just don’t want to leave any stone unturned in terms of what we are trying to do.

"We don’t want to put them under too much pressure but we want to try and make them realise what’s at stake.

"Apparently the draw is before the game and so that is another little thing to watch how we react.

"I wouldn’t want to know who we’ve got and I’m sure the players won’t but it will get out.

"We just have to get on with the game."

And to do that though they will have to perform a whole lot better than they did at Longmead.

The City boss said: "Our ball retention wasn’t good enough against Tonbridge and we have to be better than that.

"When we pass the ball, we’re a good side and that disappointed me because that’s where we set our standard.

"You’ve still got to earn the right to win a game and Tonbridge were right in our faces, as we expected.

"If I was playing a side who had an FA Cup second round match in six days, I would tell my team to go out and test them, ‘see if they want to be here tonight’, and they did that."