Hawks boss Paul Doswell remains upbeat and felt showing in St Albans defeat warranted more

And Doswell believes the club's three new additions, who all started in the loss to the Saints, have 'freshened things up' as they bid to turnaround a recent slump in form.

Shaun Jeffers struck the only goal of the game five minutes after the restart as Hawks' winless league run reached seven matches.

But Doswell insisted his troops could count themselves unfortunate not to come away with anything from what he viewed as an improved performance against St Albans/

Strikers Manny Duku and Stefan Payne - recruited from Inverness and Chesterfield respectively in the build-up to the game - were both withdrawn in the second-half after being handed starts.

While midfielder Alfy Whittingham completed the full 90 minutes in his first outing since arriving on a one-month loan deal from Aldershot.

Doswell was satisfied with the first look he got of the trio in Hawks' colours and says his men deserved more against St Albans.

He said: ‘I thought the performance was good in difficult conditions. It was a howling wind out there which made it difficult for both sides to know whether to go long or go short.

‘I think St Albans had one chance first-half, which Ross (Worner) saved, we've got a real debate on their goal - we think it was offside. The wide lad (Romeo Akinola) was offside - that's their one chance in the second half and we scored from it.

‘We created enough chances, certainly to get something out of the game. I think Tommy Wright's header at the end - he's got to score - but that's the way it's going at the minute.

‘What I would say is, I think the three signings have freshened us up, we're working extremely hard, we worked extremely hard this week in training and that's all we can do.’