Ian Allinson was largely satisfied after St Albans City safely secured their place in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 replay success against Corinthian Casuals.

Two early goals from Ralston Gabriel set Saints on their way before David Diedhiou made sure of the win and a trip to Taunton Town on Wednesday.

The winners of that tie will then be away at Billericay Town with a place in the first round proper at stake after the draw for the fourth qualifying round was made this lunchtime.

The Saints boss, who won the National League South’s manager of the month award for September, said after Saturday’s replay success: “I thought we were really professional the way we started the game.

"We got 2-0 up, could quite easily have been three or four by half-time; their keeper’s made an absolute worldie just before half-time from a corner and then we had a little spell in the second half when Lewis Knight had a header over and the keeper’s made another good save.

"And then we had a little 10-minute spell where we took out foot off the pedal and did some silly little things, probably over-passed in wrong areas and didn’t get to grips with the game and we gave them one or two really good chances.”

Allinson admitted his side could have faced “a tricky last 15 minutes” had Casuals taken one of their opportunities, but he added: “Overall I was really pleased. I felt we approached the game right, we did the job early on, the first 15 minutes was where we won today’s game.”

Casuals groundshare with Kingstonian, but with their Bostik League game taking priority and floodlight issues, the replay was switched to Metropolitan Police’s Imber Court ground.

The Saints boss made four changes from last week’s 1-1 draw in the first meeting and freshening his side up had the desired effect as the ‘visitors’ were two goals to the good inside the opening 15 minutes, both courtesy of Gabriel.

The striker made the breakthrough after getting on the end of fine Ben Wyatt cross and Gabriel was soon to double his tally after his initial effort had been saved by Bradley Comins.

With the rain making the pitch increasingly heavy, chances were then to be at a premium for the remainder of the first half.

Corinthians did almost pull one back after the break though, when Diedhiou cleared from beneath his own bar after a looping cross had dropped over Dean Snedker.

But after Knight had headed over, Diedhiou netted the third when he headed home a corner at the far post with 11 minutes of normal time remaining.

Prior to the goal though, the ‘home’ side had gone very close when Gabriel Odunaike found Warren Mfula unmarked in the centre of the penalty area, but his outstretched boot sent the ball narrowly wide via the outside of the post.