St Albans City pulled off a surprise 3-0 away victory over play-off hopefuls Bath City in their push for National League South survival.

First-half finishes from Solomon Nwabuokei and Joe Iaciofano had them visitors firmly in control at half-time and Zane Banton wrapped up the win with a third midway through the second period.

Saturday's win lifts the Saints up to 19th in the table, two points ahead of the relegation spots.

In the opening exchanges it was Bath who looked the most likely to seize the initiative, with deliveries from the wings causing problems for the St Albans defenders.

Two headers from Ryan Brunt glanced wide of either side of Dean Snedker’s goal early on, before Adam Mann’s headed effort ended up sailing over the bar.

The Saints should have taken the lead earlier than they did when a stray pass from left-back Dan Ball allowed Banton to break free through the middle and round the goalkeeper, but his end product was unable to find either the net or Iaciofano in the centre and the ball was scrambled to safety by the relieved Bath defenders.

Bath were once again the architects of their own downfall as they gifted the Saints another chance moments later, which they duly took.

This time Noah Chilvers conceded possession cheaply allowing Banton and Iaciofano to work the ball to Nwabuokei on the edge of the area and he side-footed the ball with precision into the far corner.

Mann came close to restoring parity almost immediately after he drifted in from the left flank and tried to bend his effort around Snedker into the far corner, but he was unable to find the target, ensuring the Saints’ lead was still there for them to build on, which they duly did ten minutes later.

A Bath attack broke down on the edge of the Saints’ area and the ball was cleared to Iaciofano on halfway and, despite being surrounded by a swarm of black and white shirts, he managed to bundle his way into the 18-yard-box where he clipped a delicate effort over Ryan Clarke into the top corner.

Iaciofano was in the mood for causing problems and he almost set up Nwabuokei soon after scoring his goal when he turned delightfully on the edge of the area before slipping the midfielder into the box, only for him to tumble after taking the ball round the goalkeeper.

The game was sealed on the 70th minute with a goal worthy of winning any game.

The Saints worked the ball from defence out to the left flank with a patient move totalling 13 passes, at the end of which Rhodell Gordon slipped an incisive pass into the path of Banton, who whipped a shot past Clarke at his near post.

Iaciofano did manage to put the ball in the net for a fourth time, but he was flagged offside. Nevertheless, the Saints were more than happy with their three goal lead.

Following the match, head coach Ian Allinson told the club website he thought his side were “outstanding.”

He said: “It was a very pleasing performance because we’ve been striving for that for a long time now and we haven’t had it. We have to get this consistency in our performances, but everybody did their jobs today, they listened to what they were told and from one to 11 today, they were outstanding.

“We’ve got to keep our feet firmly on the ground and take it into next week and hopefully we can keep picking these points up, but overall the performance was very good today and that was the most pleasing thing for me.

“I’m used to this situation and the one thing I won’t do is panic.”