Match Report


ALTRINCHAM (0) 2 WOKING (1) 2

Blue Square Premier league match,
played on Thursday, 31 January 2008, at 7.45pm.


SPONSORS:

  • Match: John Smiths Brewery
  • Ball: Campbell McLay
  • Programme: Tintagel Consultancy Ltd


    SUMMARY:

    In front of the Setanta cameras, Altrincham edged another point towards safety and showed great character to come back from two-down against Woking on a cold night at Moss Lane. Groundsman Neil Brown had done a great job to overcome the dreadful weather earlier in the day and produced an excellent playing surface - not to mention an intricate mowing pattern. In a fairly scrappy first half in which the players had to contend with a gusty wind, a moment's lack of concentration on the Alty right allowed Norville to advance and when the ball reached the centre it came out to Quamina, whose low shot evaded Coburn's dive, low to his right (35 mins). Referee Pawson allowed a lot of pushes and nudges to go unpunished and when Lawton appeared to be shoved off the ball on the edge of the Woking box, he waved play on, allowing the Cards to break forward and Morgan slotted a low shot past Coburn (55 mins). Two minutes later a well-taken goal by Little made it 2-1 and after Joe O'Neill had come on, Alty adopted a 4-3-3 formation for the final half hour. Alty's second-half pressure was rewarded when Ryan Shotton lashed a shot into the top of the net after 71 minutes. But the visitors then successfully kept Alty at bay and almost snatched a winner themselves when Hutchinson's effort was cleared off the line. In added time Alty lost Ryan Toulson to a dreadful tackle by Morgan who was finally booked after a catalogue of fouls


    SCORERS

  • 35 mins: Bradley QUAMINA (Altrincham 0 Woking 1)
  • 55 mins: Marvin MORGAN (Altrincham 0 Woking 2)
  • 57 mins: Colin LITTLE (Altrincham 1 Woking 2)
  • 71 mins: Ryan SHOTTON (Altrincham 2 Woking 2)


    REFEREE: Mr CL Pawson


    ATTENDANCE: 905


    TEAM NEWS

    The so-far ever-present Altrincham captain Darren Tinson was missing his first match after being injured last Saturday but Greg Young was fit to resume at centre-back after he too had failed to complete the last match. Greg was now joined by Ryan Shotton, who moved from right-back. Richard Battersby was brought in for his first start, at right-back, in preference to Chris Lane, who remained a substitute. Robbie Lawton took over from Tinson as captain. For Woking, Lewis Christon - a recent loan signing- came in for Matt Gray.


    BACKGROUND:

    This game had been brought forward from Saturday to Thursday to accommodate the cameras of Setanta Sports as they made their first visit to Moss Lane for a live game this season. There had been awful weather overnight and during the morning rush hour with heavy squally rain and, though the rain had held off for most of the rest of the day, the wind was still strong. Few supporters had come to follow The Cards, not surprisingly given the timing, the weather and the prospect of watching the game at home on TV.


    LINE-UPS

    ALTRINCHAM (Red and white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks) 1. Stuart COBURN; 17. Richard BATTERSBY, 16. Ryan SHOTTON, 10. Greg YOUNG, 24. James JENNINGS; 23. Ryan TOULSON, 7. Robbie LAWTON (capt), 25. Liam KING, 11. Warren PEYTON; 9. Colin LITTLE, 19. Chris SENIOR. Subs: 3. Gary SCOTT, 6. Jake SEDGEMORE, 12. Joe O'NEILL, 15. Chris LANE, 22. Carlos LOGAN.

    Alty Subs:

  • 59 mins O'NEILL for BATTERSBY
  • 66 mins: LOGAN for SENIOR
  • 84 mins: LANE for KING

    WOKING (Pale blue & white striped shirts, white shorts and socks) 1. Nick GINDRE; 23. Lewis CHRISTON, 6. Jay GASSON, 5. Tom HUTCHINSON, 3. Danny BUNCE; 15. Goma LAMBU, 11.Matt PATTISON, 4. Bradley QUAMINA, 24, Giuseppe SOLE; 8. Marvin MORGAN, 9. Jason NORVILLE. Subs: 2. Paul LORRAINE, 7. Matt RUBY, 10. Liam MARUM, 14. Adam GREEN, 17. Jerome MALEDON.


    REPORT

    Alty kicked off, towards the Golf Road, ten minutes late, so as to fit in with the Setanta TV schedules. The pitch was in excellent condition despite the torrential rain of recent days. After the home side had conceded an early freekick, they went on to win the game's first corner after 4 minutes. This was dealt with by Gindre before the game stopped for the linesman on the Popular Side to get his yellow flag changed due to some malfunction of its complicate mechanism. Play itself continued fairly uneventfully as the players tried to come to terms with a stiff and gusty wind. The flow of the game was not helped by another stoppage when Stuart Coburn got the referee to replace the match ball as, presumably, it was not sufficiently inflated (12 mins). As for the game itself, there was little goalmouth action until Alty won a corner through Chris Senior, after 19 minutes.

    Jennings's curling left-footed corner from the right was met by Young's head but the ball deflected off a defender onto the cross bar and out of play for a another flag-kick, which was cleared. As Graham Heathcote gave an interview to the roving Setanta reporter on the touchline the two sides continued to cancel each other out in midfield. A Woking corner arrived after 24 minutes which Coburn punched clear before a snap shot from Senior, at the other end, cleared the bar (26 mins).

    The referee showed himself very liberal when it came to little shoves, pulls and pushes as the game meandered past the half-hour mark with little to get the pulse racing. Alty had a close shave in the 37th minute when Bunce's freekick from the right went right across Coburn’s goalmouth but drifted out of play before any Woking player could turn it in. Unfortunately, the home side did not learn its lesson from this lapse of concentration as Norville was now allowed to advance up the Woking left with the Alty defence standing off. The ball came into the goalmouth from where it came out to Quamina. From about 15 yards he drove a low shot past Coburn's right hand into the corner of the net to give the Cards the lead (35 mins).

    Almost immediately afterwards, Woking's Argentinean keeper, Gindre, annoyed the Alty bench by taking an inordinate amount of time over a goalkick though it was hard to believe that he was really time-wasting at such an early stage. Battersby, who had an uncertain start to the game, was then booked for a foul (40 mins), as Alty went through a slightly shaky spell approaching half-time. Woking won a corner following which Gasson's long range effort cleared the bar by a comfortable 40 feet or so as it sailed out of the ground. Half time arrived with Alty trailing by the game's only goal, having not been at their sharpest in the first 45 minutes. Woking have secured several single goal wins this season so Alty would have to up their game in the second half to retrieve anything from the match.


    Half-Time: ALTRINCHAM 0 WOKING 1

    The opening stages of the second half continued the game's unexceptional pattern to date before the home side stepped things up and went on to have the better of the second forty-five minutes. Morgan's early foul on Toulson deserved a booking if only for the big striker's persistent offending but Mr Pawson thought otherwise. But soon the Woking forward caused Alty more serious grief when he put his side two goals ahead. The goal was controversial as it arose after the hard-working Lawton had been clearly fouled on the edge of the opposition box, only for the referee to allow play to continue. Christon, then Sole counter-attacked up the left before feeding Morgan who slotted a low shot past Coburn's left hand and into the net (55 mins). The Alty fans chanted "You don’t know what you're doing" to the match officials.

    Things now looked grim for Alty against the tight Woking defence but within two minutes they had got back into the game. Alty's King advanced to the left of goal and the ball was played back from the by-line to Senior whose short pass inside the box to Little was expertly chipped over the advancing keeper by the quick-thinking leading scorer, to bring his tally to four goals in his last three matches (57 mins). After Gasson's foul on Senior, King found Shotton at the back post but the defender could not turn the ball in. A minute later striker Joe O'Neill came on for right-back Richard Battersby as Alty changed from 4-2-4 to 4-3-3 (59 mins).

    Jennings could have few complaints when he was booked for a lunge at Lambu, who needed treatment. Jennings has now been booked three times in his last five appearances so needs to be careful, though he otherwise had another good game at left-back (60 mins). Next, Alty had a penalty appeal turned down as Senior was held by Gasson. King then performed the tackle of the game on Morgan as he threatened to break forward before Carlos Logan came on for Chris Senior up front for Alty (66 mins). The Alty boss geed up his three strikers as he shouted to them that they were asleep and told them to get into the game. This had the desired effect as Logan immediately assisted Jennings to win a corner (70 mins). The corner by Jennings from the left came to Little but his shot was blocked and came out from Hutchinson to Shotton who, from the about ten yards out in a fairly central position, blasted an excellent shot into the upper part of the net to make it 2-2. it was the on-loan defender's third goal of the season to add to his string of excellent defensive performances (71 mins).

    Altrincham might now have been expected to go on and win the game, having seized the initiative from Woking but the visitors lifted their game to stifle any such hopes. Indeed, a surge forward from Bunce led to an excellent cross from the left which only just cleared Norville's head in the penalty area and a corner resulted (76 mins). Play now went from end to end as a well-struck Peyton volley was deflected out for an Alty corner. With twelve minutes left Frank Gray brought on his namesake Matt in place of Lambu, and three minutes later the former Cambridge United striker Marum replaced Norville for the visitors. Alty made their final switch as Chris Lane came on for Liam King (84 mins).

    A Woking corner came and went, with Coburn scrambling the ball off the line (87 mins) before the game went into four added minutes. Though Alty tried hard, no clear chances arose for them and in the final minute a poor challenge by Morgan left Toulson on the ground. The striker was belatedly booked whilst Toulson had to be taken off, leaving Alty to play the final seconds with ten men. After the final whistle Toulson was caried off to the treatment room.

    Altrincham's second-half performance gave them a deserved point against a side who are their bogey team. Although only a point was gained, it helped to widen the gap above the bottom four, though Alty have now played one or two games more than all of the teams below them. Altrincham's next league games are against two of those teams, Farsley Celtic and Droylsden, and will be vital in their quest for survival at this level. If they play as well as they have in the last month, in which six points have come from six games, (a rate of a point a game which none of the bottom six has consistently achieved this season to date), they will give themselves a fighting chance. Ryan Shotton was deservedly named as the Sponsors' Man of the Match, with Colin Little lifting the Blue Square award.


    Full-Time: ALTRINCHAM 2 WOKING 2