St Albans City joint-manager James Gray praised his team’s response after they put Saturday’s misery behind them to defeat Basingstoke Town 3-0 at Clarence Park on Monday night.

The Saints were heavily criticised after a dismal 2-0 defeat at Truro City on Saturday but produced the ideal response just two days later in the National League South.

Gray said: “I think we needed it. We’ve had a couple of days soul searching and I thought we got it spot on tonight with an all-round great performance.

“The third goal epitomised where we’re trying to get to. You could see once we got the first and second goal the lads started oozing with confidence and kept the ball a lot better than we have done of late.”

The Saints boss added: “There’s never an easy game in this league but we did move the ball with a tempo. I asked the boys to bring a tempo that definitely wasn’t there Saturday.

“I thought we got our tactics spot on tonight and I’m really pleased for the boys. We took a lot of flak from Saturday’s performance and I heaped a lot of flak on them as well and they came up top trumps tonight and I’m really pleased for them.”

City opened the scoring after 13 minutes when striker Louie Theophanous hit a superb right-footed shot into the net.

The Saints made it 2-0 when Lewis Hilliard scored his first goal for the club when he curled a 20-yard shot past goalkeeper Aaron Howe.

St Albans sealed the win with a superb third goal. The hosts produced a free-flowing counter-attack and Gus Sow backheeled the ball into the path of Theophanous allowing the striker to score his sixth goal of the season.

Gray said: “It’s probably the first time this season everything went right for us. We had a little bit of luck but we defended manfully. We were energetic throughout the midfield and the wide boys.”

Reflecting on Theaphanous, he said: “He made his own goal. He’s one of those players who is a selfish player when he’s in the 18-yard box.

“He wants to score a goal and not many people saw it but he knows what he’s doing and where the back of the net is. If you do give him chances he’ll score goals but also create his own which is good.”

St Albans’ victory takes them up to 18th in the table ahead of their home game against Hayes and Yeading on Saturday.

The Saints have been drawn to play either Deal Town or Whitstable Town at home in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday, September 26.