07 Aug 2025
Jess Unwin looks at how St Albans City have been preparing for the fight back from relegation…
Immediate promotion and a return to the National League South is the season’s goal for St Albans City FC, says the Saints’ assistant manager and club legend, Paul Bastock.
But that’s not all. The former goalkeeper, who played more than 300 games for City between 2004 and 2014, told the St Albans Times: “We want to bring enjoyment and smiles back for the club and the supporters.”
Both Bastock and manager Ian Culverhouse have spoken of their bitter disappointment over City’s relegation last season, which means the team will drop to the seventh tier of the football pyramid and play its 2025-26 fixtures in the Isthmian League Premier.
Bastock revealed: “Everyone knows how I feel about the club having played so many games here and Ian has that affinity too – we want to put right what went wrong last season.”
The management duo of Bastock and Culverhouse, who joined St Albans midway through last season after the departure of David Noble, have been given the chance to do just that.
Bastock pledged City’s approach will be attacking and on the front foot. “We’ve already been doing that in the pre-season games. We should fear nobody, go and attack it, enjoy it and see where this journey takes us.”
He added: “There’s such great support for this club – the 4,000 crowd at the last game last season shows that. We want to build, which we’ve done, but keep progressing, get strong and hopefully we’ll get the club straight back up and then we can add to the squad – it’s all about building blocks.
“Most importantly, we want the players to enjoy their football and that’s the environment that we’ve always tried to create. It was difficult last season, coming in halfway through, trying to get to know players and with some singing from a different hymn sheet. This year, we’ve recruited so that everyone is going to be on the same page.”
The close season’s recruitment has seen an almost complete refresh of the playing personnel. “The owners [chairman Lawrence Levy and John McGowan] have been brilliant with us,” says Bastock, “we’ve got all the bodies that we wanted in.
“It’s a whole new group and they’ve gelled really quickly, way ahead of what we expected.
There’s a great vibe within the dressing room: we’ve got young and old, experience and lots of legs. The older players are brilliant with the kids, who are learning from them.”
He felt the new-look Saints squad had acquitted itself well in pre-season friendlies but added: “Pre-season is about players understanding shape and rotation, getting minutes on the pitch, not getting injured and the results are the cherry on top. We need to make sure that come August 9 and our first league game we hit the ground running – that’s when the real business kicks off.”
Saints certainly have experience at the heart of their defence with veteran centre-backs Michael Bostwick and Jamal Fyfield, plus Alex Dyer in front of them as a holding midfield player.
Bostwick, who played under Bastock and Culverhouse at Boston United, had an ankle operation in close season and hasn’t played regularly since December. However, he featured in City’s last three pre-season friendlies and even got on the scoresheet against Real Bedford.
But this Saints squad is no ‘Dad’s Army’ – Ryley Scott, James Sweet, Troy Perez-Duah, Leo Sery, George Sippetts, Nick Ralfe and Kieran Gauthier are all aged 23 or less, while more talent emerging from the club’s academy system is further reason for optimism.
Local boy Harrison Smith, who’s just 20, has had knee injury problems in the run-up to the new season, but Bastock revealed: “Harrison will join in with training any day now and hopefully after that the world’s his oyster and he can show us what he did when he first came to the club from Stevenage Borough.
“It’s great that he’s a local lad and we all know what that means to the supporters…fingers crossed he’ll be injury free, and he will be integral to what we’re trying to achieve this year.”
Looking at the opposition in the Isthmian League Premier and who’s likely to be rivals in pushing for promotion, Bastock said: “Billericay and Dartford will be tipped by most.
“It’s a whole new venture for us and we know there are probably four or five clubs with bigger budgets than us, but we’ve recruited well, and Ian and I have done it before on smaller budgets at other clubs.
“Ultimately, if we do what we want to do, at pace and we’re solid, we won’t worry too much about the opposition. Obviously, we’ll do our homework before to know their strengths and weaknesses, but we’ll concentrate on our group and, if we’re doing it right, let them worry about us.”
St Albans City FC open their 2025-26 season with a home game against Chatham Town this Saturday (August 9) at Clarence Park.
