28 Jan 2026
Billericay Town 3 St Albans City 2 (Isthmian League Premier Division)
Report by Jess Unwin
Gary McCann made an unhappy return to the club he left just four months ago as St Albans City slipped to a third defeat in their last four games.
Appointed as the new Saints boss in November, McCann arrived at Clarence Park after his two-year tenure as manager of Billericay Town came to an end in September, just seven games into the current league campaign.
That was something of a surprise as the Essex side came agonisingly close to clinching the Isthmian Premier Division title in the 2024-25 season, and then narrowly missed out on promotion in the play-offs.
Talking on St Albans City’s YouTube channel, McCann felt Saints had played some good football in places in Tuesday night’s game but lapses in concentration had once more been their downfall.
“There have been way too many games where we haven’t been second best on the night but have come out second best in terms of the result – it’s been our Achilles heel all season.”
He added: “It’s a season of disappointment in terms of what was expected… it’s a changing room that’s under-achieving. There is no question that group of players are not getting the return and the reward that they should. There’s a floor somewhere and it’s up to us as a management team to iron that out.”
On City’s prospects for the rest of the season, he said: “There are still lots of points on offer but the margin for error is virtually zero now. To lose the last couple of games is disappointing and makes our task extremely hard.”
Victory against Billericay, who had won their three previous games, was always going to be a tall order for City, but they did take the lead after just 12 minutes, thanks to a Kieran
Petrie goal. St Albans stayed in front for just a little more than 10 minutes before Keon Lewis-Burgess levelled the scores. They then fell behind after another 10 minutes when Callum Watts added a second for The Blues.
In the first minute of the second half the cause looked lost when Frankie Merrifield made it 3-1 to the home side. Jasper Mather did notch his eighth league goal of the season to
narrow Town’s lead to 3-2 on 57 minutes, but Saints couldn’t force an equaliser before the final whistle.
- Midfielder Amar Sanghrajka has joined St Albans City on a 28-day loan from Watford FC. He made his City debut as a substitute in Saturday’s Lewes defeat.
- Injury has brought a premature end to Harrison Smith’s season. City boss Gary McCann revealed the young striker is likely to undergo knee surgery.
- St Albans are back at Clarence Park this Saturday (31) for a 3pm game against Cray Wanderers.
