Match Report

SUMMARY:

After their recent good run, Alty gave a performance to match the damp and dismal weather at Crawley. Following a slow start by the visitors, Alty finally got forward, only for Murphy to be badly gashed on the left thigh by Simpemba's tackle. After lengthy treatment, Murphy was stretchered off to Redhill Hospital. The Robins continued to labour and it was no real surprise when Clare put Crawley ahead after 34 minutes, converting Burton's cross from the right. After a challenge on Aspinall by Armstrong, a mass brawl halted play just after the interval ( - the aftermath is seen above). Then, Clare made it two-nil after an hour, again from Burton's pass. Though Alty sent forward Band and enjoyed a brief flurry of three corners late in the game, Crawley ended the game comfortable winners.

SCORERS

REFEREE: Mr.Graham Scott (Abingdon)

Altrincham arrived at Broadhall Stadium on the back of a run of just one defeat in their previous seven games, whilst Crawley had sunk to the bottom of the table after losing their last four games.

Having left the sunny North West Altrincham fans travelled through the foggy Midlands to a thoroughly wet Crawley. The Broadhall is an impressive modern stadium but today its pitch was very soft indeed after all the rain in "Sunny Sussex" recently.

TEAM NEWS

Altrincham welcomed Gary Talbot back to the squad after a three-month injury lay-off but Colin Potts was unfit and dropped out of the sixteen for today's game. With strikers Pat McFadden and Lee Hendley both playing for Trafford today, the Alty bench lacked its recent attacking bias with only Kieran Lugsden an attacking option this afternoon. As well as Talbot, also returning to the bench was Warren Peyton, who had missed the last three games through suspension.

Several Crawley players had reportedly suffrered with flu in midweek, but all were present today but the injured Brown and Wormull were missing. Making his debut on the bench was Danny Clay, a midfielder signed from Exeter the day before today's game.

CRAWLEY TOWN (All red): 1. Phil SMITH, 2. Ben JUDGE, 5. Ian SIMPEMBA, 6. Leonard MENDY, 8. Paul ARMSTRONG, 10. Steve BURTON, 12. David WOOZLEY, 17. Sacha OPINEL, 18. Tony SCULLY, 23. Lee BLACKBURN, 30. Daryl CLARE. Subs: 9. Daniel EKOKU, 11. Neil JENKINS, 14. Scott WARD, 20. Danny CLAY, 31. Scott MARSHALL.

ALTRINCHAM (Pale blue shirts, dark blue shorts and pale blue socks): 1. Stuart COBURN, 11. Gary SCOTT, 4. Mark MADDOX (capt), 15. Peter BAND, 3. Chris ADAMS; 37. Ged MURPHY, 8. Val OWEN, 2. Steve ASPINALL, 19. James ROBINSON; 9. Colin LITTLE, 10. Rod THORNLEY. Subs: 5. Gary TALBOT, 12. Warren PEYTON, 14. Lewis CHALMERS, 20. Kieran LUGSDEN, 21. Stephen ROSE .

ALTY SUBS:

REPORT

It seems commonplace now for games to kick off late due to problems with the goal-netting - it happened again here today but play finally got under way, after the teams had changed ends, two and half minutes late. The surface was sodden and rain added to its greasiness throughout the ninety minutes.

Alty started sloppily making a series of mistakes and giving away possession cheaply. One early mis-pass, back towards his own defence by Murphy induced Maddox to commit a foul on the edge of the Alty penalty "D" but Crawley drove the resulting freekick into the Alty wall. Soon afterwards, Mendy had a shot at goal but sliced it badly wide (2 mins). Next a Band misheader directed the ball backwards to Scully, to the right of goal but, fortunately for Alty, from his cross Clare shot wide (4 mins). The visitors' errors continued as, now, Burton got behind Band to the left of goal and forced a good palm away from Coburn. But then, just as Altrincham were starting to gather themselves and get ino the Crawley half, Murphy suffered a bad injury. He went for a ball on the right front edge of the Crawley box where he was met by a challenge from Simpemba which left him with a bad gash to his left thigh. Team-mate Rod Thornley immediately recognised the seriousness and summoned a stretcher (9 mins). And, after five minutes treatment on the pitch, the unlucky midfielder was carried off on the stretcher and taken to hospital in nearby Redhill (14 mins). Alty brought on Peyton for Murphy as Adams lined up the freekick for the foul (15 mins). Referee Scott took no further action against the offender and Adams failed to capitalise on the position with a poor freekick. However, moments later another foot-up offence, this time against Thornley, again yielded a freekick but no caution. This time Adams did better with the kick from the right of goal and keeper Smith completely missed his intended catch only to have the good luck to see the ball cannon away off his legs.

Alty now had Peyton on the left, with Thornley having moved back to the right in place of Murphy, whilst Robinson moved forward to support Little. After Crawley had been caught offside and the crowd had endured what seemed like a full set of head tennis Crawley enjoyed some more possession which ended when Judge's 20 yard effort bounced comfortably to Coburn's arms (19 mins). Alty continued to labour in midfield and it took a poor cross from the right by Burton to give Alty the respite of a goalkick (22 mins). With the rain still falling steadily, another mis-header from Band underlined Alty's unsettled performance. Then, to add to their woes, Thornley was rather harshly booked as he hoofed the ball in the air as he attempted to prevent a throw-in being conceded - it was Rod's third booking in four games (24 mins). But Crawley were not doing a lot better than Alty as Scully shot fully thirty feet over the bar. But soon Clare did much better than his team-mate with an excellent header which Coburn saved well. Next, as Crawley were caught offside, the floodlilghts now came on to illuminate the gloomy proceedings

But Crawley's wayward shooting continued as Armstrong fired wide from Scully's cross from the right (28 mins). If anyone was emerging with any credit for Alty at this stage it was in defence where Coburn had already made two decent saves, Maddox was busily effective and now Chris Adams made a superb block tackle on Scully. Just after the half hour mark, Alty finally saw the whites of the Crawley keeper's eyes as Little and Thornley conspired to feed a ball forward into the box for Robinson, whose poke caught both the ball and the keeper, who had come out to make a good block (31 mins). But it was the hosts who took the lead soon afterwards. Following an Alty throw, possession was lost and Crawley broke up the middle. The ball was played to Scully to the right and he played it for Burton to cross from the right. In the goalmouth Clare arrived to slide the ball past Coburn for a well-worked goal (34 mins).

Alty continued to be second best, whilst in the "technical area", manager Graham Heathcote was not a happy man as he argued with the fourth official. Blackburn then shot wide for Crawley (39 mins) and soon Clare sent a diving header wide from Judge's cross (40 mins). A couple of minutes later Peyton and an opponent got entangled by the touchline but play continued as Peyton escaped from a neck lock. Then came a central midfield mix-up between Robinson and Owen which allowed Blackburn to get free but he shot just wide of the target (44 mins). However, Alty had their best moment of the half just before the five minutes of added time started. It came when Little jinked his way into the right of the box past Mendy and passed inside to Thornley but Armstrong closed down the Alty man as he shot and the chance had gone (45 mins). In added time Little was felled from behind by Woozley who only suffered the punishment of a freekick. The final minute of added time saw Alty struggling three times to clear the ball from their penalty area before the whistle arrived for the interval. Alty were fortunate not to be further behind and had Crawley had more accurate finishing Alty would have been.

The second half got off to a lively start as Armstrong fouled Aspinall just inside the Alty half near the away dugout. Aspinall reacted to the challenge and other players then waded in to cause a mass brawl in which more than a dozen players were involved (46 mins). All four officials then deliberated for some time before referee Scott, first of all, called over Armstrong to be booked. Gary Scott and a somewhat bemused Warren Peyton were then also shown yellow cards. The incident had also incensed the Alty bench and manager Heathcote traded comments with the baying Crawley crowd in the stand. When play resumed it was briefly end to end with Crawley coming close as Burton backheeled a cross just wide of the post from Armstrong's pass from the right (54 mins).

But Alty continued to have difficulty stringing anything like a passing movement together. Typifying this lack of cohesion, a woeful throw in by Alty went straight to a Crawley man but fortunately Burton shot wide at the end of the move (58 mins). Nevertheless, Crawley sealed the match on the hour mark when Mendy and Burton set Clare free just inside the Alty box and, though the out-rushing Coburn made a half stop, the ball looped off his gloves and into the net to make it 2-0. Visiting manager Graham Heathcote was incandescent and the home crowd added to his displeasure. The Alty boss then made a tactical switch, withdrawing Thornley and sending on Gary Talbot for his first Conference game in three months. Peter Band vacated the centre-back berth for Talbot and moved up, to play as a striker (64 mins).

But Crawley continued to press and Aspinall was lectured for a trip on Blackburn near halfway (66 mins). Despite the situation on the pitch the Alty supporters launched into another chorus of "Part-time and we're proud of it" and this seemed to have some effect as Alty lifted their game for their best spell of the match. Their first good passing move of the afternoon, involving Maddox, Robinson, Owen, Little and Scott, was halted but, soon afterwards, a Colin Little shot earned them their first corner of the afternoon (72 mins)., Soon, a mis-aimed shot from Aspinall gained a fortunate second corner for Alty (74 mins). And then another corner arrived off keeper Smith after 76 minutes. But gaining three corners in four minutes was about as good as it got for Alty, even though Little got into the box soon afterwards (77 mins).

Alty now brought on Lugsden up front and withdrew Robinson (78 mins) and a minute later Crawley took off Burton and introduced Ekoku (79 mins). Four minutes after this, Exeter City loan-player Clay made his debut for Town in place of Blackburn (83 mins). After Alty's brief spell of pressure, Crawley were now settling again and won a corner after 87 minutes. As Daryl Clare was announced as Man of the Match, the 90 minutes ended and three minutes of added time began. Towards the end of these, Lugsden was booked for a late challenge in the far left of the pitch and there was just time for Crawley to bring on Marshall in place of Clare, who left to a deserved ovation from the home fans (92 mins).

It was a long way home for the travelling Alty fans, who were making their longest trip of the season, after a disappointing showing from their team. Away from home, Alty have now lost nine times this season and in none of those games have they scored a goal and they rarely looked like doing so today. Manager Graham Heathcote's comments in the NL Paper after the game indicated that he felt that referee Smith allowed Crawley to bully their way through the game, but it also has to be said that the Robins never really got going, though the injury to Murphy did not help, and that Crawley were deserved winners.