St Albans City manager Dave Howell used the Saints first friendly of the summer to cast his eye over 25 hopefuls on Monday night as a Queens Park Rangers side, including nine with Football League experience, chalked up a convincing 4-0 victory at Clarence Park.

Howell, taking charge of his first game since leaving Harrow Borough to join St Albans in May, fielded a different XI at the start of each half and, as he admitted after the game, has now made up his mind about a few decisions that needed to be made.

“I wanted to have a look at all the players who have been working hard pre-season. We had one team in the first half that I thought did quite well, they had never played together before, and some promising signs came out of that,” said the City boss.

“The second half was a bit difficult because there were some players not playing in their normal positions and I had to give players 45 minutes just to see,” he added.

The one player that really did stand out in the City ranks was goalkeeper Nick Jupp who was one of six former Harrow players on show for the home side.

Jupp may have been beaten four times but had it not been for an inspired performance by the former Watford youngster then the margin of defeat would have been uncomfortably large.

City’s first half XI featured three players who played in the First team fleetingly last season – Ross Dedman, Aidy Chaves and Sean Shields – alongside three former players now back at Clarence Park, Rob Haworth from Tooting, Ryan Moran from Boreham Wood and Tobi Jinadu from Harrow, plus four trialists.

All of the second half starting XI are new to the Park with just substitute Spyros Mentis having previously been at the club.

Rangers, bereft of the majority of their First team squad who are currently on tour in the south-west, started well and should have gained an early lead when Mo Shariff threaded the ball across the face of the goal to Angelo Balanta who stabbed his effort wide from close in.

City’s first genuine threat on goal saw Shields, picked out by Howell as one with potential, send as crisp effort through to keeper Elvijs Putnins who needed two attempts to secure possession.

On ten minutes Jupp pulled off a tremendous double save from Shariff and Leon Clarke.

Rangers opened the scoring on 13 minutes with a patient build up that concluded with Balanta, Martin Rowlands and Shariff combining to feed the ball through the middle of the home defence for Leon Clarke to beat Jupp with a fine left footed effort from 18 yards.

Jupp put that setback behind him to save well from a Shariff header while City’s best chance of the half went begging when Jerome Walker cut the ball towards the near post where Danny Hart scuffed his shot across the face of the goal.

Rangers continued to play a smooth passing game but either side of having a Clarke goal disallowed for offside they came close to being undone at the back.

Shields neatly controlled the ball on his chest and sent a dipping half volley just over the crossbar while a cross from Francis Attoh was met with a looping header by Haworth that Putnins – who played against City for Boreham Wood last season – stretched acrobatically high to his right to flick to safety.

Another chance went begging when a Haworth shot deflected to Hart whose shot on the turn was blocked by the legs of Putnins.

Five minutes from the interval Balanta exchanged passes with Cook only to see his low drive hacked away from close to the goalline by the towering Jinadu.

Howell’s experiment of looking at a new XI after the break was far from a great success as the visitors dominated from start to finish.

Clarke cleverly wormed his way through the City defence on 56 minutes only for Jupp to deflect the ball into the side netting with his left foot, but from Cook’s ensuing corner Clarke rose to cleverly glance home his second goal of the night.

Two minutes later City were undone for a third time when German, who also struck an upright, smartly side-stepped Jupp before slipping the ball into the Hatfield Road goal.

Rangers completed the scoring with their fourth goal on 75 minutes when Alesandro Pellicori headed home from 12 yards.

Although beaten three times after the interval Jupp can be satisfied with his contribution as he pulled off good saves from Bruno Andrade, Shariff, Clarke, Pellicori and two from German.

Speaking after the game Howell confirmed that popular left-back Peter Smith has probably played his last game for the club and is due to have trials with Staines Town.

The City manager also confirmed that Farnborough and Braintree Town are showing an interest in last season’s leading goalscorer Inih Effiong who has indicated he would like to leave the club. Howell confirmed that the striker would be allowed to leave if a satisfactory fee can be agreed.

St Albans City (First half): N.Jupp, R.Dedman, A.Chaves, D.Ijaha, R.Moran, T.Jinadu, D.Hart, D.McGonigle, R.Haworth, J.Walker, Se.Shields, subs; So Shields, F.Attoh, J.Holy.

St Albans City (Second half): N.Jupp, M.Farrelly, M.Terry, J.Mengeli, J.Gray, R.Yorke, J.Ehui, A.Fry, B.Haule, L.Hall, L.Walters, subs; S.Mentis, M.Alebiosu, M.Turner.

Queens Park Rangers: E.Putnins, M.Harriman, G.Borrowdale, M.Rowlands, T.Parmenter, M.Ehmer, L.Cook, L.Clarke, M.Shariff, M.Doughty, A.Balanta, subs; L.Olley, A.German, A.Pellicori, M.Henri-Francis, B.Andrade, J.Gibbons.

All listed substitutes played.

Referee: Dave Rock (Hatfield).

Att: 551.