Match Report

SUMMARY:

Altrincham played out only their second goalless draw of the season (the game against Burton was the other) after dominating the second half but failing to score, with King's drive against the bar the nearest to breaking the deadlock. The first half was delayed by six minutes when the floodlights on the Main Stand side all went out after eleven minutes of play and the interruption did not help Alty to get into a flowing style of play. Although they improved markedly after the break, playing the ball more to feet, the Farsley backline, led by the impressive Iqbal and Santos were equal to all that Alty could muster. Chris Senior was named Man of the Match for Alty but Greg Young would have been many spectators' choice and Stuart Coburn also made some important saves. Farsley remain five points behind Alty but with two games in hand.

SCORERS

REFEREE: Mr Mo Matadar

Liam King overcame the knock he received at Droylsden to retain his place in an unchanged Altrincham starting eleven. But on the bench, Richard Battersby returned from suspension to displace Carlos Logan. Farsley were without Knowles, Stamer, Scott McNiven, Crossley and Morgan who were variously suspended or injured.

BACKGROUND:

After the win at Droylsden 72 hours earlier, this was another vital relegation fixture pitching Alty (20th) against Farsley (21st). Before kick-off Alty had a five-point lead but had played two games more. A win tonight and anything less for Weymouth against Torquay would have lifted Alty to their highest position of the season, nineteenth.

Both sides had brought in a number of new faces in the January transfer window so the line-ups were quite different from those which played out a 1-1 draw earlier this season when Alty had played against ten men for more than half the game following the dismissal of Damien Reeves for an elbow on Chris Lane which broke his nose.

LINE-UPS

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks) 1. Stuart COBURN; 16. Ryan SHOTTON, 5. Darren TINSON (capt), 10. Greg YOUNG, 24. James JENNINGS; 23. Ryan TOULSON, 7. Robbie LAWTON, 25. Liam KING, 11. Warren PEYTON; 9.Colin LITTLE, 19. Chris SENIOR. Subs: 3. Gary SCOTT, 14. Tom CAHILL, 12. Joe O'NEILL, 15. Chris LANE, 18. Richard BATTERSBY.

Alty Subs:

FARSLEY CELTIC (Blue shirts, shorts and socks): 31.Curtis ASPDEN; 2. Mark JACKSON, 4. Amjad IQBAL (capt), 38. Georges SANTOS, 22. Ryan SERRANT, 33. Scott GARDNER, 27. Dominic KRIEF, 24. Craig BENTHAM, 39. Rory PRENDERGAST, 32. Stephen TORPEY, 9. Damian REEVES. Subs: 8. Simeon BAMBROOK, 11.Andy WATSON, 20.Lee TUCK, 35. Colin HEATH, 37. Chris BACKHOUSE..

Watched by a very good gate for a Tuesday evening, which included a vocal group from Unicorn Junior FC under-9s who were guests at Moss Lane under Alty's Featured Club Scheme, the Robins kicked off towards the Carole Nash (away) End. In the second minute Alty went close when Senior fed Lawton on the right and his cross flashed across the goalmouth but without an Alty man getting on the end of it. Soon, the former Emley and Accrington winger, Rory Prendergast, went down on the edge of the box and from his freekick Coburn made a fine save, low to his left (4 mins). The Alty keeper made an even better save in the tenth minute when the on-loan Gardner made a fine run on the right before feeding Reeves. But Coburn made a brilliant block with his legs from Reeves's shot, at the cost of a corner (10 mins). Following the corner, Georges Santos fired narrowly wide for Farsley but after this bright start to the game, the lights went out. All of the four sets of floodlights on the Main stand side of the ground stopped shining but the Popular Side illuminations continued to operate. Referee Matadar stopped the game and, after consultations, took the players off. The same lights, newly installed this season, had failed earlier in the evening but, fortunately, after just six minutes of semi-darkness, normal service was resumed and the game restarted.

After this interruption it took some time for the game to begin to flow again. Both defences were doing well but Alty were making it easier for Iqbal and Santos than it might have been with a number of speculative balls which the defenders won comfortably against the smaller strike force of Little and Senior. At the back Shotton was again showing his skill for Alty, always seeming to have time on the ball, but he was not at his best at this stage so far as distribution was concerned. Indeed, manager Graham Heathcote passed the opinion on the whole of his side when he told them that "This play is sloppy".

Alty did put together a good move midway through the half which ended with a Peyton shot over the bar (22 mins). But, overall, play was fairly even. Farsley had a scare when Senior chased down a back pass but Aspden just reached it before the Alty striker (26 mins). Soon afterwards, Senior forced a fine save from Lawton's feed but was flagged offside (28 mins). Alty's improvement continued as Young did well to head back a Shotton long-throw into the path of King who, from outside the box, shot narrowly wide of Aspden's left post (30 mins). A Peyton effort was saved soon afterwards before a speculative shot from Reeves, at the other end, went well wide (36 mins) A good Alty build-up then ended with a neat interchange between Senior and Toulson which left the latter inside the box. He tried to place his shot to the keeper's left but Aspden made a fine stop to deny him a goal (38 mins).

After almost going into the ref's book for a goal, Toulson almost immediately found Mr Matadar noting his name for a caution after he had slid in to tackle Serrant, leaving the former Leeds youngster needing treatment (39 mins). The right-back was unable to continue and was substituted by Watson (41 mins). Just before this, Mr Matadar indicated eight additional minutes, which included the six minutes when play had been suspended. There was plenty of effort but not a lot of significant action during these eight minutes other than when, in the final moments, the ball went out of play in the technical area and Graham Heathcote deliberately sliced it into the air and summarised his view of proceedings by shouting, "That's what you're all doing. Now, pass it!"

So, half-time arrived with neither defence having conceded.

The first significant action of the half saw Reeves seize on Young's half clearance and force a very good save from Stuart Coburn at the cost of a corner (48 mins). Another Celtic corner followed soon afterwards before a slick Altrincham passing move ended up with the ball in the back of the net from Liam King, who got into some good attacking positions in this game. But the flag had gone up and the "goal" was ruled out (52 mins). Soon King went close again when the ball came via Senior on the left and Lawton to King, whose shot from the edge of the box came back off the crossbar. From the rebound Senior seemed to be bundled over in the box by Jackson but no penalty resulted and the ball was cleared. But these moments had lifted Alty and they now played some better football than had been the case in the first half. Indeed, it took a good intervention from Santos to see off another home attack as the Golf Road End lent its considerable vocal support to the Alty cause (57 mins).

Just after the hour mark a poor challenge by Bentham on Lawton left the Alty midfielder needing lengthy treatment and the offender was booked. Lawton hobbled off but limped back on a little later just after Bambrook had come on to replace the veteran former Scunthorpe man, Steve Torpey, up front for Farsley (63 mins). Altrincham were now getting on top and soon won a corner. In the 69th minute Alty almost got the breakthrough when King fed Senior in the box and his shot was deflected towards the back post off the keeper. Little seemed to hesitate in closing in and a defender got the ball away for another corner on the Alty right. This produced a further corner, which the keeper caught from Jennings’s kick.

After 71 minutes, Tom Cahill returned for his first appearance since an injury lay-off and he replaced Ryan Toulson, who had been having a good game but had been booked. Senior now moved to the right as Alty continued to press. Next, Joe O’Neill came o for Warren Peyton on the left flank (75 mins). Two minutes later the visitors made a change with Tuck replacing Gardner (77 mins). The disjointed nature of this period was added to when play stopped for what was actually a double foul. Firstly, Jackson brought down O’Neill 40 yards from goal on the Alty left but the referee allowed advantage only for King to be chopped down by Iqbal just 20 yards from goal. To Alty's annoyance, Mr Matadar gave the first freekick, 20 yards back from where Alty's attack had reached. Also, whilst booking Jackson, Iqbal could count himself very lucky to escape censure as his foul was probably worse than Jackson's. Following the freekick Cahill seemed to be impeded in the box and then he fired in a shot for which a handball appeal went up. Cahill’s second attempt was then blocked and Farsley cleared their lines (79 mins).

With Altrincham continuing to press and Coburn a virtual spectator, his counterpart Aspden was again warned about time wasting by Mr Matadar (83 mins). Another Altrincham corner soon followed as the minutes ticked away and this, in turn, produced a further flag-kick (86 mins). But then Farsley did get to the other end only for a shot to sail over the bar but a corner was awarded for a slight deflection. This corner was cleared before four minutes of added time started. During this period Farsley belatedly went forward and won a corner and, in the final moments, a good ball out to the left led to a low shot, which Coburn gathered low down at the near post. At the final whistle it was Farsley who were the happier with the outcome as it kept Altrincham within catching distance in 20th place.

On the positive side, this was Alty's second successive clean sheet and the outcome did at least prevent Farsley making any ground on them. Although all but one of Alty’s remaining 15 games are against teams higher than them in the table, their form in 2008, when 12 points have been gathered from 8 games, will be good enough to keep them up, if it can be sustained. Whilst Chris Senior and Amjad Iqbal were named as Men of the Match, other leading candidates for each side included Alty's Greg Young and Stuart Coburn and Farsley's Georges Santos.