Match Report

SUMMARY:

Without Steve Aspinall and Gary Scott, but with Eddie Hussin and Rod Thornley back, Altrincham were unable to overcome a second-string Hucknall side which had only one player in the starting line up who had also started in last Saturday's Trophy semi-final. Alty started quite well but Hucknall took the lead in the 32nd minute when a move up the left set Khoshimov free and he drilled a low shot into the far corner of the net. Alty then went through a quiet spell before Little was bundled over on the very edge of the box and he got up to convert the resulting spot-kick (44 mins). Alty applied most of the pressure in the second half, though Hucknall looked dangerous on the break. However, there were fairly few shots on target from either side in the second half though Alty created enough chances to have taken all of the points and won the overall corner-kick count 11-2.

SCORERS

REFEREE: Mr P.C. Walker

After winning our first three matches against Hucknall Town after they had been first promoted to the UniBond Premier League, Alty had not won any of the next seven encounters against them. The last reverse was a final-minute defeat in an FA Cup replay this season at Watnall Road. Tonight's game was sandwiched between the two legs of Hucknall's FA Trophy semi-final so the Nottinghamshire club "rested" ten of the eleven players who had won at Bishop's Stortford last Saturday, Steve Palmer being the only survivor. However, first teamers Bacon, Todd, Timons, Smith and Cooke were on the bench.

TEAM NEWS

Rod Thornley made a surprising return to the starting line up for Alty after missing the last three league games with what had originally been thought to be a serious leg injury. Also back, after just two minutes as a substitute in the last four matches was Eddie Hussin. Despite Eddie's reappearance, Gary Talbot continued as captain. On the negative side, both Gary Scott and Steve Aspinall were unfit for selection, so George Melling continued at right-back, with Richard Norris occupying left midfield. Josh Mitten and Lewis Chalmers dropped to the bench as Colin Potts also returned to the starting line-up.

ALTRINCHAM: (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts, red socks): 1. Stuart COBURN, 2. George MELLING, 3. Chris ADAMS, 4. Mark MADDOX, 5. Gary TALBOT (capt), 6. Eddie HUSSIN, 7. Colin POTTS, 8. Val OWEN, 9. Rod THORNLEY, 10. Colin LITTLE, 11. Richard NORRIS. Subs: 12. Jonathan MITTEN, 14. Kieran LUGSDEN, 15. Lewis CHALMERS, 16. Paul TILLEY, 17. Adam BRINDLE.

HUCKNALL TOWN: (Yellow shirts and socks, white shorts): 1. James LINDLEY, 2. Martyn BURKE, 3. Michael PLUMMER, 4. Daniel HARDING, 5. Simon BROWN (capt.), 6. Nathan WINDER, 7. Philip ROWLAND, 8. Steve PALMER, 9. Mark WARD, 10. Eugene FRANCIS, 11. Aziz KHOSHIMOV. SUbs: 12. Andy TODD, 14. Danny BACON, 15. Chris TIMONS, 16. Russell COOKE, 17. Mark SMITH (gk).

REPORT

Altrincham kicked off towards Golf Road on a fine night, with the floodlights just coming on as the match started. The Alty choir was in good voice as the home team strove to make up the gap between their current 6th place and the play-off places. The opening stages were fairly uneventful but Thornley was looking surprisingly lively after his injury. A foul on Thornley gave Alty their first real crack at goal from a freekick, 20 yards out. Little drove the kicklow but it was comfortably fielded by keeper Lindley (5 mins). The makeshift Hucknall side were looking a bit shaky in the opening stages as Alty enjoyed the majority of the possession. But the next shot of note did not arrive till the 10th minute when Thornley won possession and fired in a low shot, which Lindley smothered. Soon Potts put in a disappointing left-footer which went well wide (11 mins). Alty next put together a good move after 13 minutes when Little found Thornley on the edge of the box in a central position. Rod opted to take on Winder and got round him but as the defender recovered the ball ran on to Lindley.

Norris had started the game well and, after making a smart backheel to himself, he fired in a left foot cross which yielded the game's first corner, on the Alty right. Potts took a long corner which found Thornley beyond the back post and though he got the ball to Talbot, the danger was cleared by Hucknall. Norris soon fed Potts, who got past Plummer but clipped his shot narrowly wide (16 mins). However, Altrincham were still not firing on all cylinders and manager Graham Heathcote, joined by Dalton Steele, who had returned after missing several matches with work commitments, attempted to gee up their players. It almost worked immediately as Potts found the wandering Thornley on the right and his teasing low cross was only just smothered by Lindley as Little closed in (18 mins). Then Maddox, Owen and Little got the ball to Norris who fired a well-hit shot narrowly over the bar (19 mins) as Alty continued to have the better of the game. Next Potts crossed the ball to Little at the back post and .though Thornley then had a shot blocked, offside was given. Meanwhile Hucknall were making errors and the Alty backline was fairly comfortable in repelling their moves.

Two Melling throws in succession won Alty a corner on the right and from Potts's kick, a goalmouth scramble resulted till Talbot was penalised (24 mins). A 35-yarder from Melling hit the Golf Road end roof as Graham Heathcote called for his team to "get forward". Hucknall's first real threat came after an error by the otherwise industrious Owen which led to Harding getting clear on the right. The ex-Sheffield United striker crossed, low, into the box where Francis appeared to have an easy tap-in but somehow Coburn managed to save with his legs to concede a corner (29 mins). This chance seemed to give Hucknall some encouragement and three minutes later Winder played the ball out to the left, where Harding advanced quickly up the wing before finding the Uzbek, Khoshimov, who was formerly at Belper and Worksop. He, in turn, advanced quickly into the left side of the box and planted a firm, low drive into the bottom, far corner of Coburn's net (32 mins). The goal gave Hucknall more belief and they had the better of the next few minutes until an Adams overlap on the left won Alty the first of three successive corners, following the last of which a good shot from Norris narrowly went wide of Lindley's left post from 25 yards (38 mins).

A couple of misplaced passes from Melling, whose distribution has yet to match his excellent defensive skills, led to several minutes of disjointed play from the home side and, as half-time approached, they looked unlikely to get a first-half equaliser. But after Owen had won possession, Potts's cross from the right found Little, just inside the front edge of the box where he was bundled over by Winder to concede a penalty. With regular penalty-taker Aspinall not playing tonight, Little took the spot-kick and sent the keeper the wrong way, placing the ball to the keeper's left (44 mins). Half-time arrived after two minutes of added time with Alty leading the corner count 5-0 but counting their good fortune at the penalty which had got them back into the game.

At the interval, Hucknall brought on Cooke for Palmer, so completing a full 11 changes to the side which had started the Trophy game last Saturday. Soon, keeper Lindley was dawdling once again when taking dead ball kicks, a tactic he had seemed to employ from as early as 20 minutes into the first half and this time, even Mr. Walker felt moved to gee him up (52 mins). After Potts had been tripped, Adams's freekick from 25 yards out on the right saw Talbot head narrowly over the bar (54 mins). Alty continued to press without creating a clear opening but a change was made soon afterwards when a limping Maddox was replaced by Chalmers, who went to the left of midfield (58 mins). Norris moved to right-back as Melling moved inside to centre-back.

Hucknall made a change, too, with former Alty captain Chris Timons replacing Winder in defence on the hour mark. After this, a foul on Thornley on the left front edge of the Hucknall box gave Potts a crack at goal but his low shot was well held by Lindley (62 mins). Altrincham made a second change with Thornley coming off and his replacement being Mitten, rather than Lugsden who had such a positive effect at Gainsborough last Saturday (63 mins). Alty then won their sixth corner of the game when Potts's cross struck Timons. Following the corner a misplaced pass by Owen was intercepted and Hucknall broke away but a fine tackle by Norris saved the day for Alty. Owen made good amends immediately, winning the ball in midfield before surging up the middle. Sadly, after advancing about 30 yards, he lifted his shot well over the bar from 25 yards out (65 mins). Chalmers's excellent long throw now won Altrincham another corner as Alty continued to press. Following the corner, a goalmouth melee led to the ball coming out to Hussin, whose left foot shot just cleared the bar from 20 yards (68 mins).

After Francis had been fouled nearly 30 yards out, Ward’s freekick was arrowing for the top corner before Coburn, going to his left, palmed it round the post for a corner. From this, the ball came to Timons's feet but he was unable to turn it the right side of the post. With Lindley continuing to move at a snail's pace for every kick he had to take, Hucknall now enjoyed a little pressure of their own but without seriously threatening the Alty goal. A foul on Chalmers, who was doing well on the left, gave Adams a freekick but this came to nothing. But soon Talbot set up Owen for a shot which again went far too high (73 mins). Next Chalmers received a fine pass from Hussin and sped past a defender before shooting narrowly over from the edge of the box (75 mins). Had the crossbar been six feet higher, Alty would have scored six tonight. Sadly, Alty's chief marksman, Colin Little, was not seeing much of the ball in this half.

After 78 minutes Kieran Lugsden came on Eddie Hussin. Then Mitten was held as he went for a long ball from Melling and Potts took the freekick from 35 yards out and found Talbot whose header went narrowly wide (80 mins). Hucknall then brought on Bacon for Francis. Alty continued to get freekicks at regular intervals and then won a corner through Chalmers's efforts with a cross from the left. Following the corner, Norris had an effort blocked as Alty's shot count soared but the number which had forced a goalkeeping save remained low. Alty did go close again soon afterwards when Potts chipped the ball forward into the box for Little but his effort was cleared from just in front of the goal line.

Corner number 9 was won for Altrincham by Lugsden and this time Potts’s flagkick led to a goalmouth scramble but the ball was cleared. Not long afterwards, Norris won the ball from Khoshimov and fed Little on the right, who in turn fed Potts, whose quick cross was met by Lugsden but his header just cleared the bar (86 mins). Altrincham were well on top but just unable to score. Another header went over the bar when Talbot met Chalmers's long throw from the right (88 mins). Chalmers then won Alty’s tenth corner, soon followed by an eleventh. Following this one, Norris's cross was headed just wide by Mitten (90 mins).

With injury time ticking away Lugsden seemed to be clearly tripped on the left edge of the box but the referee waved play on. However, he did book Cooke moments later for kicking the ball away after a foul on Lugsden. Despite playing almost five minutes of added time, the game ended as a draw. Val Owen was named Man of the Match in a game where Alty created a hatful of opportunities but could rarely hit the target. The loss of two points makes qualification for the play-offs a difficult challenge but there are still plenty of points to be won before the season's end.