St Albans City manager Ian Allinson has told his players to forget about the FA Cup, for now.

City host Carlisle United in the first round proper a week on Sunday but have two games between then and now.

They face Truro City in the Vanarama National League South at Clarence Park tomorrow (Saturday) before taking on city rivals London Colney in the Herts Senior Challenge Cup on Monday, again at home.

Speaking after the 5-1 win at Bishop’s Stortford, Allinson said: “They’ve been told in no uncertain terms that the next two weeks are massive. They can worry about the Carlisle game when we’ve got London Colney out of the way. We’ve got [Stortford] out of the way. Now let’s get Truro and Colney out of the way and we can plan and prepare for Carlisle.”

The victory against their Hertfordshire rivals, which lifted Saints back into a play-off position, saw strikers Louie Theophanous, Sam Merson and Junior Morias all score.

And that is something that pleases the City boss.

“It’s important because that’s well over 20 between three players,” he said. “We’ve got to build that confidence because we’ve got a tough game against Truro and we have to pick up maximum points in that.

“Once we come out of the FA Cup, whether that’s against Carlisle or later, we’ve got to make sure we’re in the top five or six of the league if we’re going to try and push on towards the play-offs.”

Saturday’s victory saw both Tom Bender and Morias return from suspensions meaning Saints will head into the next three games with a full squad, barring injuries.

Allinson said: “We’ve shown at times how good we can be. We’ve still got a little bit of inconsistency and can be a bit sloppy but we’ll keep working with and pushing the players because they are the ones who make the team.

“They’ve just got to keep concentrating on what they’re doing and keep doing the good things well.

“With the squad we’ve got we can swap it around so they have to play to their full potential and if they do they’ll stay in the team.”