Match Report

REFEREE: Mr S P Copeland

With Potts, Owen and Whalley still sidelined by injury, the Alty squad was virtually self-selecting. Coburn, Aspinall and Scott were named on the bench, Lane was suspended and Lawton was missing as he had just become a father. Two Youth team players, striker Tom Bailey and midfielder Dominic Lillie got their first taste of first-team involvement as they were drafted in on the bench.

The Linnets were without Standley, Scott and their leading scorer, Thompson.

BACKGROUND:

This was Altrincham's fourth game at a fourth venue against differently named opponents from Runcorn over the last decade. Following Runcorn FC's move from Canal Street to Widnes, and their renaming as Runcorn F.C. Halton, Alty met them several times at the cavernous Halton Stadium. Then, Runcorn Town were formed from Mond Rangers and they hosted a pre-season match against Altrincham at The Pavilions a couple of summers ago. Then, as Runcorn Halton ceased operations, Runcorn Linnets were founded in 2006 and have already risen to the Vodkat (NW Counties) League Division One, after gaining promotion in their first season, under manager Steve Carragher. Though they have plans to return to play in Runcorn itself, the Linnets are currently ground sharing with Witton Albion F.C..

The attendance of 271 was very respectable and included a very vocal home contingent as the old rivalries between Runcorn and Altrincham were revived for the first time in several years in a competitive match.

LINE-UPS

RUNCORN LINNETS (Yellow shirts, green shorts and yellow socks): 1. Robbie HOLCROFT,2. Paddy O'DRISCOLL, 3. PHILLIPS 4. Neil ROBERTS, 5. John HALPIN, 6. Ryan WALLACE, 7. Carl OSMAN, 8. Thomas LAMB, 9. Paul ROGERS, 10. Francis BARRY, 11. Mike YOUNG. SUbs: 12. Steve LEAHEY, 14. Daniel TIMSON, 15. Tom BODEN, 16. BOWDEN, 17. Ross BOYD (gk)

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks): 13. Richard ACTON; 4. Karl MUNROE, 5. Darren TINSON (capt), 16. Ryan SHOTTON, 11. Warren PEYTON; 12. Joe O'NEILL, 6. Jake SEDGEMORE, 18. Pat McFADDEN, 22. Carlos LOGAN; 19. Chris SENIOR, 9. Colin LITTLE. Subs: 1. Stuart COBURN, 2. Steve ASPINALL, 3. Gary SCOTT, 20. Tom BAILEY, 21. Dominic LILLIE.

Alty Subs:

Richard Acton took advantage of a stiff breeze to win an early Alty corner with a very long kick (90 secs). The corner came to McFadden whose goalbound shot was blocked on the line. McFadden, playing in midfield, also had the next decent shot when his effort struck the keeper's left post after 5 minutes of play. But the next corner went Runcorn's way as the game was played at a fast pace with attacking intent from both sides. But a good run from Logan ended on the Alty left when he ran into a couple of defenders and, soon afterwards, a twice-taken freekick from Peyton saw a re-enactment of the memorable one which produced a goal against Millwall last Saturday (16 mins). But, this time, though Senior again met Peyton's freekick on the volley, right of goal, his effort now went high over the target (16 mins). When Halpin blatantly blocked an Altrincham advance soon afterwards, Sedgemore's well-struck freekick forced a good save from Holcroft, who parried the ball to the left of his goal. From a tight angle Senior could only put his resulting shot wide. An Alty corner soon followed, however, as Alty continued their promising start to the game.

Then, against the run of play, it was the Linnets who took the lead with a goal of excellent quality. When Barry fed Young 30 yards from goal in the right-centre of the pitch, there seemed little danger. But the Linnets' player sent a superb dipping shot over Acton to put his side ahead and prompt loud cheers from the vocal home support (27 mins). Soon after this Halpin was booked for an off the ball incident and, even after his caution, the Runcorn defender was ranting at Joe O'Neill (29 mins). Halpin nearly paid for his loss of concentration moments later when he mis-kicked an intended back pass, allowing O'Neill to nip in. But, as the Alty man tried to round the prostrate keeper, he went down in the box but referee Copeland waved away appeals for a penalty.

Ryan Shotton was then booked after bringing down Young near the Runcorn right touchline (34 mins). After their good start, Alty had now gone off the boil and manager Graham Heathcote tried to stimulate some improvement by calling Chris Senior over from the right wing to swap places with Carlos Logan (36 mins). But Alty continued to labour and almost fell two goals behind when a looping cross from 25 yards, way out on the right, from Barry deceived Acton and landed on his cross bar before rebounding to safety (43 mins). Alty did win two late corners and, indeed, had the ball in the net as the second one was won. Unfortunately, though, when Logan's deflected shot went into the net, it was into the set of mobile training nets which had been left at the side of the proper goalposts (45 mins). Last Saturday Alty had been leading against a team two levels above them at half-time but, tonight, with seven of the same players in their starting line-up, they were trailing to a side four levels below them in the non-league pyramid. So, once again, a cup upset was on the cards but this time it was up to Alty to turn the tables.

Early in the second half, Joe O'Neill was set free at goal but a fine tackle by Roberts dispossessed him (49 mins). But then Runcorn began to play some good football and enjoyed a dominant spell. When the dangerous Osman got past three players as he advanced up the inside-left channel, Alty were pleased to see his shot go wide. Indeed, the Linnets' pressure yielded three corners in a five minute period. The first two corners came from deflected shots by Young and Barry whilst the third was conceded by a fine save by Acton, who tipped Osman's shot round his left post as the Runcorn man ran at the defence and cut in from the Runcorn left (61 mins). But just as Runcorn seemed to be in control, Altrincham equalised.

The goal came when O'Neill, about 25 yards out, fed Logan to his left and he advanced, rapidly and diagonally from the left, towards goal. As goalkeeper Holcroft advanced to meet him at the edge of the box, Logan slotted a good shot past him to make it 1-1 (64 mins). Moments later Steve Aspinall replaced Pat McFadden in midfield (65 mins). The Alty goal had transformed proceedings and the visitors went close to doubling their lead moments later. Little set O'Neill running towards the by-line to the right of goal. His low cross seemed destined for a simple tap-in by Senior but somehow Holcroft threw his body in front of the Alty forward and blocked the ball (67 mins).

Despite this improvement in Alty's fortunes there was still room for improvement as was seen when Aspinall and O'Neill contested the same aerial ball in midfield. But soon Alty went ahead when Shotton's ball, up the inside left channel, was deflected into Senior's path by a defender's miscued clearance and left the Alty man running unmarked at goal. Like Logan before him, Senior calmly slotted the ball past the advancing goalkeeper (70 mins).

Runcorn now brought on Boden for Phillips (70 mins) and they soon won a corner but it was not long before Altrincham settled a game which, fifteen minutes earlier, had seemed to be drifting away from them. The third Alty goal came after a neat move which ended with Senior relaying Little's pass into the path of Logan, who drove home his second goal of the match (77 mins). After this Runcorn made another change as Leahey replaced Young (80 mins).

After 88 minutes a dipping long-range effort from Aspinall just cleared the bar and an Alty corner followed soon afterwards. Runcorn raised themselves for a late rally and it took a good save from Acton to deny Lamb as the game went into added time. Then Lamb, again, threatened and forced Acton to push a well-hit shot round the post. But Runcorn could not convert the late corner which resulted (90+2 mins). So, Alty went through to the Cheshire Senior Cup semi-final. For Altrincham it had been a very patchy performance with twenty minutes of dominance in the second half following a period of quite pedestrian play from the Blue Square Premier side. But, now, just ninety minutes separate Altrincham from a Cheshire Senior Cup final. Runcorn Linnets, for their part, put on a fine performance and it would not be surprising to see them climbing further through the leagues after last season's promotion in their first season of existence.