Lee Allinson has said it is time for St Albans City to kick-on with their pre-season preparations – starting with this Saturday’s visit of Boreham Wood.
After four games Saints are still waiting for the first success after defeat to Stevenage was followed by three draws.
That latest tie was against Biggleswade Town on Tuesday night and City’s assistant manager says that marks a change in the preparations.
He told the Herts Ad: “It’s pre-season and our goal is August 6.
“But tonight is the last night where we’re just looking for minutes. Saturday [against Boreham Wood] becomes important.
“We’ve got a couple of boys away which doesn’t help but the next few games are where we need to start putting things into practice and looking at our strongest side for the 6th.
“At the moment it is about minutes. We’ve not got to get too frustrated. People are learning how we want them to play and we haven’t worked on any shape at the minute but that starts on Saturday.
“At times we’ve played people out of position to give people minutes so we haven’t really had a settled side out there.
“We finished the game strong and we look fit so come Saturday, we have to start getting organised and take it from there.”
The 1-1 draw at Langford Lane saw Sam Merson, with his first goal in City’s colours, cancel out a Chris Marsh effort.
It was St Albans’ first goal since their opening pre-season game against Stevenage was followed up with two 0-0 draws against Kings Langley and Watford.
Allinson said: “From the Stevenage game where we were really bright and lively, I just think we’ve been a little lethargic in the last couple of games.
“I think players need to start getting to know each other a bit better and start playing more as a team and a unit.
“At the moment we’re a bit too individual and I think we’ve got a bit of work to get on with in the next couple of training sessions and in the four remaining pre-season games we’ve got to go and put things right.”
He said that City are close to bringing in a further two new faces, with an announcement on loan deals for “football league players” expected in the next week.
“Maybe one or two more but we’re very happy with what we’ve got,” he said.
“We’ve seen good things in patches against Stevenage and Watford. But I think we need to get that settled side and making the new boys understand how we play and the old boys understand how the new boys play.
“We’re very happy with what we’ve got; we just need to work now on a few things and getting a settled side.”
And he also revealed what it’s like working with his dad Ian, the St Albans manager.
He said: “I played for him for a couple of years and that was quite hard work to be honest.
“But I’m really enjoying it. For me he’s one of the best I’ve worked with and he’s very good at what he does. He gets the best out of players and I’m learning an awful lot.
“We haven’t clashed yet and hopefully we won’t but it works really well. We get on well.”
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