St Albans City manager Ian Allinson admits his side can take huge confidence from their 6-0 thrashing of Whitehawk in their battle to avoid relegation this season.

The Saints had only taken one point from their last seven games and went into the match bottom of the National League South and desperately in need of a positive result.

But City produced a dominant performance on Saturday to claim a first win under new boss Allinson and climb off the foot of the table.

Allinson, whose side host second-placed Sutton United this Saturday, said: “We’ve got to take huge confidence from this and have a tough game against a very good side in Sutton.

“We’ve got to make sure we prepare properly this week and try and pick something up again from a tough game.”

He continued: “It’s just nice for the lads because they needed that.

“They’ve been in a bit of a lull lately and we’ve gone a long time without winning games.

“We just needed that little confidence and I’ve said you get in a habit of winning and losing.

“Hopefully with that confidence we can take it forward into the last 11 games because it’s one where we’re going to have to be scoring lots of goals if we’re going to try to stay up in this division.”

It took just eight minutes for the Saints to open the scoring when Charlie MacDonald found the back of the net from close range.

Whitehawk were then reduced to ten men midway through the half when defender Juan-Cruz Gotta fouled MacDonald in the area.

MacDonald sent goalkeeper Craig Ross the wrong way from the penalty spot to double their lead.

Striker MacDonald, on loan from Boreham Wood, completed his hat-trick just after the half-hour mark when he followed up after Louie Theophanous struck the bar.

The Saints added a fourth goal in the last 20 minutes when Theophanous fired home.

MacDonald netted his fourth goal of the game when a mistake by Ross enabled him to easily score.

The visitors conceded another penalty for a shirt pull and Jonathan Edwards rounded off the scoring late on in the game at Clarence Park.

Allinson, whose side are seven points away from safety, said: “They’ve all gone and put a good performance in and now they have to continue that for the rest of the season because it is 11 cup finals.

“We’ve got to put in performances like we have done today.”