28 Apr 2026
Carshalton Athletic 1 St Albans City 0 (Isthmian League Premier Division)
Report by Jess Unwin, photos by Jim Standen
With the Robins desperately needing points to escape relegation, some might suggest it was no great shock that this last game of season 2025-26 ended in another disappointing defeat for Saints.
But don’t tell City boss Gary McCann that. Post-match, he told the club’s YouTube channel: “St Albans City Football Club should have a winning mindset, and I don’t think that runs through the group. We’re too nice, too soft at times – just too easy to play against and that can’t be us going forward, and the management team are going to rectify that.
“Again, we’ve produced a performance that’s just not been good enough to win a game of football, and it just highlights again to me that there are some real changes needed to get the ingredients right to win.”
He continued: “We need to make adjustments – we need to be better, we need to be stronger.”
After relegation from the National League South in season 2024-25, hopes were high that Saints could bounce straight back by clinching promotion from the Isthmian League Premier Division.
Instead, even the most generous St Albans City supporters would agree it’s been an indifferent campaign, while the more critical would argue it’s been a pretty dismal failure, with the club finishing 11th in the table and 22 points short of the promotion play-off places.
There was at least the excitement of an FA Cup run to the first round proper, but even that was rather brutally ended with a crushing 6-0 defeat away at League One side Burton Albion.
It is absolutely valid to point to the mitigating circumstances of injuries robbing St Albans of key players, and the undoubtedly disruptive decision by former Saints boss Ian Culverhouse to jump ship mid-season and join King’s Lynn.
However, defensive frailties have too often made City’s job harder, while it’s also been true that the team has frequently failed to convert chances to score. On the latter weakness, and on the target for next season, McCann said: “I think at the top end of the pitch it feels like we need four or five players in that area – especially if we want to be in the top one or two in this division next year, which is very much the remit.
“We want to challenge for the top places and we’re capable of doing that as a football club – we’ve just got to get the recruitment right and that process has already started.”
It’s encouraging that club skipper Zane Banton, Alex Dyer, Lewis Page, Jack James, Kieran Petrie and goalkeeper Sam Donkin have already signed up for 2026-27 – but, as McCann himself says, adding the right winning blend of players to that initial group will now be crucial.
On Saturday against Carshalton, there was at least a goal worthy of winning any game of football, with a deliciously curled right foot shot from Nathan Young-Coombes on 40 minutes giving City keeper Sam Donkin no chance of making a save.
For Saints, Jasper Mather couldn’t quite get on the end of an excellent Alex Dyer cross, and then, later, Jasper’s looping header proved to be a simple catch for Athletic’s man between the sticks, Hubert Graczyk.
After the break, Alex Wall did well to hold up the ball and put striking partner Mather through on goal with a good pass. Graczyk’s near-post block of Mather’s strike sent the ball ricocheting up into the air and a Robins defender was able to head clear on the goal line.
The travelling Saints faithful thought their side had finally levelled the scores when Graczyk spilled a Sam Smart shot from outside the penalty and Wall hit the ball home via a post, but cheers turned to groans when the referee ruled Wall was offside.
Donkin was forced to make a smart double save to deny Eddie Allsopp and then stopped Abdullateef Akolawole Salami’s effort before half chances for City’s Tom Jennings and Keiran Gauthier. Carshalton’s 1-0 win sees them stay in the Premier Division at the expense of Cray Valley.
- Between May 26-29, St Albans City Football Club is putting on football holiday camps, hosted by first-team players and top coaches, for children aged four to 11 at Samuel Ryder School, St Albans. The cost is from £22.50. See the club website to book now.
