St Albans City continued their flying start to the season as they extended their 100 per cent record to four games with a 2-0 win against Chelmsford City on Monday.

The victory, which was secured by goals from Tom Gardiner and Rhys Murrell-Williamson, takes the Saints three points clear at the summit of the National League South table.

Both sides headed into match with nine points from nine and were evenly matched for much of the encounter.

Dean Snedker was on fine form throughout and made a number of fine stops to preserve City’s first clean sheet of the season.

Ian Allinson’s side had to weather early pressure and were fortunate to see Lee Barnard fire over the bar when the ball dropped to him in the box after nine minutes.

It was the visitors, however, who took the lead after coming through the storm and went ahead in the 19th minute.

Zane Banton’s well-placed free-kick picked out Gardiner and he nodded home from close range to make it 1-0.

From there City grew into the game and they were unfortunate not to grab another six minutes later when Murrell-Williamson’s free-kick forced a good stop from the Chelmsford keeper.

It would be the home side who finished the game stronger though and they spurned a succession of chances just before the interval.

The second half continued in a similar vein and it took City some time to get going.

They grabbed the all-important second goal just before the hour mark thanks to a piece of opportunism from Murrell-Williamson.

After dispossessing Craig Braham-Barrett, the summer signing kept his cool and finished well to give the Saints breathing space.

With a two-goal lead to defend, St Albans began to sit back and invite pressure on themselves.

Their defence remained resolute throughout though and saw out the final half hour with relative comfort.

Monday night’s victory came on the back of another decent winning performance on Saturday as they eased to a 3-1 win over Weston Super-Mare.

Despite the relatively comfortable scoreline, the Saints were made to work for their reward on a day when a refereeing decision almost spoilt their day.

Sam Merson opened the scoring with just 16 minutes on the clock to continue his strong start to the campaign.

Solomon Sambou was then harshly judged to have handled in the box when the ball struck him from point-blank range.

Dayle Grubb made no mistake from 12-yards to level the scores with a composed spot-kick.

It took a moment of magic from Murrell-Williamson to restore the City lead after he curled into the top corner just 20 seconds after being introduced from the bench.

Charlie Walker completed the win with a third on a satisfying afternoon at Clarence Park.

The Saints will hope to extend their winning start to five games when they face Poole on Saturday.

Poole gave started the campaign in mixed form, picking up four points from their opening three games of the season.

They lost 3-2 against East Thurrock on Saturday.