National League South: Ian Allinson praises St Albans City's character after comeback success at Weston-super-Mare
PUBLISHED: 09:04 12 August 2018 | UPDATED: 09:07 12 August 2018

Zane Banton fires the ball into the back of the net to get the Saints back into the game Vanarama National League South: Weston Super Mare v St. Albans City, Woodspring Stadium, 11th August 2018. Picture: Leigh Page
Copyright - Leigh Page 2018
Ian Allinson praised his side's intestinal fortitude after St Albans City fought back from a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 at Weston-super-Mare.

The Vanarama National League South game had almost everything, with five goals and chances galore keeping the crowd at the Woodspring Stadium entertained through the late summer rain.

After Ralston Gabriel had an early goal chalked off for offside George Nurse and Jarrad Welch fired the hosts ahead inside 25 minutes.

But less than 15 minutes Saints were level as first Zane Banton drilled one in from 20 yards and then Gabriel dinked the ball over Weston keeper, Luke Purnell.

The second half went end-to-end for a bit, Dean Snedker making two fabulous stops, before Banton sealed the fightback on 72 minutes.

And manager Allinson was delighted with how things worked out.

He said: “I’m pleased with the three points. We’ve still got loads to work on but we showed great character.

“We could have folded at 2-0 down away from home after a long journey, we could have thrown the towel in but we kept plugging away and although we may have ridden our luck a little bit, we got the three points which is important at this stage of the season.

“I actually thought we started the game really well and scored a good goal through David Moyo and Ralston Gabriel combining but the linesman’s flag went up which is a little bit disappointing.

And they scored probably against the run of play which was poor from our point of view.

“You have to appreciate how wet it was out there.

“The ball was skidding and mistakes were made but we ended up getting the goal that gave us the three points.”

Saints formation has raised some eyebrows and Allinson admitted he may have to re-evaluate things, if only to keep his heart-rate down.

He said: “We felt we were too negative in the first two games with the way we’d set up but then we looked good defensively.

“We’ve got to pick and choose when we can play this shape and formation.

“At times we leave ourselves totally exposed as a team to being attacked but when we do go forward, we cause lots of problems and we could have scored more goals.”

And while it was Banton who got two goals, the City gaffer had praise for his other goalscorer.

Gabriel’s first-half strike was the third goal in three games for the former Haringey Borough man since his move up the levels.

And Allinson thinks there could be more to come.

“He’s had a great start and he could have had more, he said. “It is a transition from his point of view and I said to him it will take him six or so games to get up to the pace of this league.
“There were a couple of times he could have got the shot away earlier where in the leagues below he might have had more time.
“But that will come and we’ll work hard in training with some finishing training for him.”