St Albans City joint manager James Gray hopes his side can throw off the shackles and build some momentum after claiming their first National League South win of the season.

The Saints earned a 1-0 victory at Margate on Saturday to end their winless start to the campaign and Gray is confident his players can follow this up with more success over the coming weeks.

Gray said: “I would say relief is the word I would use. We have had a few games this season we could have won but did not so to get the three points is a massive boost.

“If you look at the league table we have played sides in the top six or seven so far and it’s been a tough start. There’s no two ways about it. But we’re now playing against teams around us and we have the chance to throw the shackles off and try to build on this result.”

The winning goal came seven minutes into the second half when Simon Thomas released Louie Theophanous and the summer signing blasted a left-foot strike into the net.

Gray said: “They put us under pressure in the first half but you could see they lacked confidence in front of goal. We had to ride our luck a bit but then in the end we could have scored a couple more. It was a proper, professional performance and hopefully we can get a bit of momentum from it.”

He added: “I think the turning point came against Hemel Hempstead last week. We played really well despite having a player sent off. The players were galvanised and deserved to win it despite playing with 10 men so we took that into this match.”

City handed a debut to Dagenham & Redbridge striker Ade Yusuff after he joined on a one-month loan.

Gray said: “Ade came in and offers something different to the other strikers. He’s pacy, direct and likes to shoot on sight. I thought he played really well."

“We are not blessed with the biggest budget but if he does well we’d like to keep him for longer. But the other side is if he plays well then Dagenham may want to use him in their first team.”

The Saints face a long trip to Truro City this weekend before hosting Basingstoke Town on Monday night.