St Albans City joint manager James Gray has threatened to move players on if they do not have the stomach for the fight after slipping to second bottom in the National League South.

The Saints suffered a 1-0 home loss to leaders Bath City on Saturday, which was their fourth consecutive defeat and leaves them with one point from five games.

Gray, whose side have scored just once, said: "We're just clutching at straws and it's nowhere near good enough. I won't make any excuses for the players. We've got to get better.

"Too many players are off it and I know for a fact they are better than what they are showing.

"But if they haven't got the stomach for the fight then they will be moved out, I can assure you of that, and I'll be looking to try to bring somebody in that has got the stomach.

"If we get beat we get beat fighting but we didn't have enough fighters out there and that's the disappointing thing."

The visitors were awarded a penalty in the 31st minute when Jon Davies was brought down by Jon Kyriacou and Frankie Artus converted the spot-kick.

Gray said: "It's disappointing again and frustrating. We have to look within ourselves again and try to put it right.

"I saw positives again late on but for 60 or 70 minutes it was nowhere near enough. I've just let the boys know that. There's no time for sulking."

The manager added: "I think if you look at the league table last season Bath City had about one point after five games and were fourth or fifth by Christmas so it's something to aspire to. But at the minute too many are way off the pace and I'm slightly getting annoyed by it all now."

The Saints will look to get off the mark this season in the league with a trip to Chelmsford City on Saturday before hosting Hemel Hempstead on Bank Holiday Monday.

Gray said: "We need a morale boosting victory, to score a goal and give the fans something to get their teeth into. I am still positive we have the players to do it but they need to step up to the plate."