Match Report

SUMMARY:

Altrincham wasted three early chances before they lost Steve Aspinall injured after just 14 minutes. His replacement, Gary Scott himself had to be substituted in the second half. In a gusty wind on a bobbly surface, Alty lost their way after their early chances and Coburn was surprisingly beaten by a skidding shot from the edge of the box by Walsh (32 mins).

After this came the miss of the season by Colin Little, who sold the keeper a dummy and then shot well over the bar. The next half hour or so saw some of the drabbest football seen this season but after Mitten had been withdrawn and Potts and Thornley had come on, the final 20 minutes was one-way traffic for Alty as BPA struggled against the wind. The game threatened to boil over, especially when substitute Calcutt held both his hands round Adams's neck but, amazingly, he was not even booked by the referee who was not a popular figure throughout this game. With 5 minutes left, Owen advanced up the middle and drove the ball past Britton to level the scores. Then, deep in added time, Norris fed Thornley, who hit his shot home from about 12 yards to give Alty a win that had seemed unlikely just 10 minutes earlier.

SCORERS

REFEREE: Mr S Duncan (Newcastle)

BPA's relegation from Nationwide North was confirmed last Tuesday but Altrincham still had plenty to play for as they strained to reach the play-off places, having been marooned in sixth place for the last seven weeks.

Goals are not usually in abundance when Alty play Bradford PA, but Alty had scored a goal on every previous visit to the Horsfall Stadium in the period since 2001-02, during which the clubs have been in the same division. However, Alty had not won a league game at Bradford in that period. The results were as follows:

TEAM NEWS

Maddox, Hilton, Scott and Potts were all unfit to start for Altrincham, though the latter two were on the bench. However, Aspinall was back after missing games with an ankle injury. Graham Heathcote again went for a partnership of Mitten and Little up front, whilst at the back, Melling moved to centre-back in place of Maddox. Lewis Chalmers started again, on the left. Hussin reassumed the captain's armband from Gary Talbot but Alty were also without assistant manager Dalton Steele, who had suffered a family bereavement on the morning of the match.

ALTRINCHAM: (All yellow): 1. Stuart COBURN, 2. Steve ASPINALL, 3. Chris ADAMS, 4. George MELLING, 5. Gary TALBOT, 6. Eddie HUSSIN, 7. Richard NORRIS, 8. Val OWEN, 9. Jonathan MITTEN, 10. Colin LITTLE, 11. Lewis CHALMERS. Subs: 12. Colin POTTS, 14. Rod THORNLEY, 15. Gary SCOTT, 16. Kieran LUGSDEN, 17. Paul TILLEY.

BRADFORD PARK AVENUE: (All white with green trim): 1. Andrew BRITTON, 2. Andy QUINN, 3. Ryan CROSSLEY, 4. Tony LENNON, 5. Dean JONES, 6. Jason WRAY, 7. Danny WALSH, 8. Sean McCLARE, 9. Tom GREAVES, 10. Steve OLEKSEWYCZ, 11. Danny RYAN. Subs: 12. Dean CALCUTT, 14. James COUBROUGH, 15. Thomas CURLE, 16. Gareth CLAYTON, 17. Carl SHUTT.

REPORT

BPA kicked off, with the wind behind them, on a bobbly pitch. Inside two minutes Alty had a good chance when Crossley lost possession to Little but with only the keeper to beat, Alty's leading scorer shot badly wide of Britton's right post from 12 yards. Following a long throw from Chalmers on the left, Mitten fed Little for his second one-on-one against Britton and this time the Alty man hit the target but the keeper produced a fine save, knocking the ball over the bar for a corner on the Alty right (5 mins). From the corner, by Norris, Talbot headed the ball back to Chalmers, who rifled a low, left-foot shot just wide of Britton's right post (5 mins). After this promising start, things started to go wrong when Aspinall emerged from a routine challenge on Ryan limping badly (10 mins). After soldiering on for a few minutes, the Alty right-back had to limp off to be replaced by Gary Scott, himself not fully fit (14 mins).

Bradford threatened after 16 minutes when an effort from 25 yards drifted narrowly wide. But the game had now become very scrappy as the players tried to come to terms with the wind and bobbly surface. BPA began to get the upper hand and won a corner after 20 minutes but it was knocked straight out of play for a goalkick. Then a clearing header from Talbot went to Walsh who shot narrowly over the bar from 25 yards (21 mins). Play continued in pretty uninspired fashion, made worse by repeated delays whenever the ball went out of play behind the goals. On more than one occasion the ball became lodged under parked cars on the grassy hillock behind one goal; why a spare ball was not to hand for such situations was puzzling.

After their bright start Alty were not creating much at the front end as the half wore on and even the vocal Alty supporters were temporarily quietened by the uninspiring fare being set before them on the pitch. But then, after a Talbot clearance had come to Oleksewycz, he found Walsh whose decent shot from outside the box, seemed to be covered by Coburn but, as the ball bounced in front of him and skidded off the surface, the Alty keeper was only able to get his hands to the ball but not prevent it from entering his bottom right hand corner (33 mins).

Altrincham had a glorious chance to equalise after 38 minutes when Chalmers's ball up the middle set Little, for the third time in this game, against keeper Britton. The Alty man sold Britton a dummy and had only to roll the ball into the net but, somehow, from six yards he contrived to hook the ball badly over the bar. It was clearly not going to be Colin's day. Soon after this, Hussin got booked for a foul - his tenth yellow of the season, which will trigger a suspension (40 mins). Melling then tidied up at the back as Oleksewycz threatened and soon Little fed Norris, on the right, and he won Alty a corner, which he took himself. This was cleared and after three minutes of added time, presumably in recompense for the delays in retrieving the ball, as there had been no other stoppages of note, half time arrived with Alty again at risk of losing points to a team at the wrong end of the table. During added time, Alty won a corner but again nothing came of this.

Alty had an early scare in the second half when the ball hit Talbot's hand in the box and the linesman raised his flag, only to put it down again as the referee played on. Altrincham continued to labour in the opening stages of the half and with Alty appealing for offside, Greaves got forward, behind Talbot, but shot wide (50 mins). For Alty, Hussin and Scott were looking less than fully fit as BPA continued to have the better of things. Quinn got in a low shot which Coburn held at the second attempt. Alty's best effort was a cross from the left by Mitten which Little headed wide, under pressure, at the back post (52 mins). Then Norris shot just wide from 20 yards.

Alty now had to replace substitute Scott with Colin Potts; so Norris moved to right back as Potts slotted in on the right flank in midfield (57 mins). Altrincham soon won a corner after Hussin had fed Little on the left but Potts's corner curled out over the bar, causing another long delay whilst it was retrieved. After Britton had put a goalkick into touch, Chalmers's throw led to Potts laying the ball off for Mitten to shoot, but the keeper held his effort (62 mins). This was to be Mitten's last contribution as he was taken off a minute later and replaced by Rod Thornley (63 mins). Two minutes later play stopped as Crossley had what appeared to be a shoulder problem and he was replaced by Calcutt (65 mins). As with Potts's introduction, Calcutt's arrival caused the linesman to delay proceedings for a while for reasons that were none to clear. Potts then blazed over for Alty after good work by Little on the left (67 mins). More delays followed as the ball went out of play. Little then tried an ambitious effort from 40 yards, hoping the wind would carry it past Britton, but it fell easily for the keeper (69 mins). But now Altrincham were belatedly getting on top. However, Greaves found space on the Alty left but the visitors scrambled the ball clear before Hussin's pass set up Little for a good shot, which Britton saved well (71 mins).

Following a Chalmers long throw, Alty won a corner, quickly followed by a second, which was cleared. Chalmers was now getting plenty of long-throw practice, in which he was aided by the running track, which gave him a long run-up. From one of these, Little hooked the ball over the bar. From another of his throws, Jones headed over his own goal for a corner. Alty's pressure was now sustained, with Chalmers having to run backwards and forwards across the pitch to take long throws, which were Alty's chief threat. Two more Alty corners followed and, after the second, Thornley got in a shot which Britton held from 16 yards (77 mins). After a feed from Norris, Little "scored" impressively but the effort was wiped out for offside, to the annoyance of the Alty bench (80 mins).

Substitute Calcutt, whose chief contribution to the game seemed to be to try and run the clock down, went again into the corner on the Alty left where he got involved with Adams in a head to head. The Bradford man clearly had both hands round Adams's neck, for several seconds, and a sending off seemed the likely outcome. Amazingly, Mr Duncan spoke to both Adams and Calcutt and did not even show a yellow card! Play now had an edge to it as tackles flew in and Mr Duncan seemed on the point of losing control. After Calcutt had again gone into the corner to waste time, Alty won a throw. Then, following another Chalmers throw, from inside the Alty half McClare's attempted clearance was charged down by Thornley and the ball came to Owen. He strode up the middle and with Alty fans recalling two identical scenarios last Tuesday when Owen blasted the ball well over the bar, the Alty midfielder this time drove the ball home from just outside the box in a central position (85 mins).

From the restart, Bradford continued to adopt time wasting tactics as they strove to hung onto a point. From another Chalmers throw, Thornley got in a low cross which came off a defender to Potts who seemed to be brought down in the box, but Mr Duncan would have no truck with a penalty award. With the one-way traffic towards the Bradford goal continuing, Thornley's cross from the left was headed into the net at the back post by Potts but was ruled out for offside (89 mins). Three minutes of added time was announced, which seemed ungenerous given the long stoppages for lost balls and substitutions. Little was twice given offside before Potts went down injured and had to be helped off the pitch. Though he soon came back, he ended the game as a hobbling passenger. Next, from a Hussin feed, Little toe-poked a shot at Britton (90+4 mins). With the game deep into the fifth minute of added time, Norris fed Thornley and he drove the ball cleanly past Britton to put Alty ahead and prompt ecstatic celebrations from the Altrincham supporters, some of whose younger members danced on the running track in celebration as the players surrounded Thornley to celebrate by the left corner flag (90+5 mins). There was barely time for play to resume before the final whistle went, to signal a vital three points for Altrincham in their quest for a play-off place.

As a spectacle, the game was poor for most of the first hour, with the strong wind and hard surface not helping. Until Potts and Thornley came on, Altrincham had created few chances after the opening stages of the first half. Up front, Little was uncharacteristically wayward whilst Mitten again struggled to impose himself on the match. Alty finished the game with Scott, Aspinall and Potts all injured, (in addition to Maddox, Hilton, Rose and Hallows who were all injured beforehand) but their weakened squad needs to rise to the challenge of four more tricky games in the next three weeks if Altrincham are to reach the play-offs. The spirit with which they finished the game today suggests that they will give it every effort.