Basingstoke have slipped out of the play-off places in Blue Square South

Basingstoke Town manager Frank Gray is demanding more from his players as they lost away from home again.

They went down 2-0 to St Albans on Tuesday night - their fifth consecutive defeat on the road.

Gray told BBC Berkshire: "We've been disappointing recently, there's no hiding that, compared to the standards we set earlier in the season.

"We need to put things right as quickly as possible, starting away at Staines on Saturday."

Gray said despite the defeat there were encouraging signs in the second half at St Albans, despite having Steve Laidler sent off after 36 minutes.

We've been disappointing recently, there's no hiding that Frank Gray

"For the first 45 minutes we didn't play with the same intensity as we did against Welling. Obviously going down to 10 men didn't help either," he said.

"In the second half with 10 men we got after them and played with a higher tempo and were the better team I felt.

"We had a great chance to equalise in the second half and if that had gone in we'd have at least a point.

"We haven't played particularly well but teams aren't creating much against us. Most of the goals we've conceded have been individual mistakes and that's what we have to cut out."

Gray added he is not expecting Staines to be distracted by their FA Cup tie with Millwall when his Basingstoke team travel there on Saturday.

"They're on a good run - obviously in the FA Cup, but in the league as well.

"It'll be a tough game but we have to get back to picking points up away from home."

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