Match Report

REFEREE: Mr Neil Radford

ATTENDANCE: 434

Altrincham made four changes to the starting line-up, as Kieran Walmsley and Marlon Broomes made their debuts and Simon Richman and Mark Lees came in. Loanee defenders Adam Dodd and Matt Flynn had returned to their parent clubs after Saturday's defat by Colwyn Bay. Captain Adam Flynn was out of action tonight, with an ankle injury, and Michael Twiss likewise remained injured. Nicky Clee moved to the bench and there was a welcome return, also on the bench, for Shaun Densmore. Also, on the bench at Hinckley there was a first league appearance for Altrincham Youth team striker Duncan Watmore which, with the debut of Marlon Broomes, brought to 28 the number of players named on a league team sheet for Altrincham this season.

BACKGROUND:

Before kick-off, Mike Garnett's statistics revealed the following about previous games between these two sides...

This was Altrincham's first visit to Hinckley's new ground, the Greene King Stadium, which is one of the more pleasant new stadiums in non-League football. The Knitters had enjoyed some good results recently, notably a 5-2 mauling of Nuneaton, but they were still flirting with the relegation places at kick off.

This fixture had previously been postponed from 29.10.11 and 21.11.11 due initially to Hinckley's progress in cup competitions.

LINE-UPS

HINCKLEY UNITED (Maroon and dark blue shirts, blue shorts, maroon socks): 1. Denham Hinds, 2. Sam Belcher, 3. Mark Dudley, 4. Danny Bragoli, 5. Paul Lister, 6. Callum Flanagan, 7. Lloyd Kerry, 8. Andy Gooding, 9. Craig Farrell, 10. Andre Gray, 11. Danny Newton. Subs 12. Connor Deards, 14. Jake Holt, 15. Richard Lavery, 16. Rob Oddy, 17. Tom Byrne.

ALTRINCHAM (Yellow shirts, white shorts, yellow socks): 1. Stuart COBURN (capt), 2. Kieran WALMSLEY, 5.Adrian HAWES, 6. Marlon BROOMES, 3. Mark LEES; 7. Simon RICHMAN, 8. Liam TOMSETT, 4. Chris LYNCH, 11. James LAWRIE; 9.Jack REDSHAW, 10. Damian REEVES. Subs: 12. Brian SUMMERSKILL, 14. Nicky CLEE, 15. Duncan WATMORE, 16. Shaun DENSMORE, 18. Adam REID (gk),

REPORT

The unfamiliar Altrincham line-up kicked off after Hinckley had completed their pre-match bonding huddle but there was little more than honest endeavour from both sides to mark the opening few minutes. Farrell's wildly sliced long shot was the only early effort on goal (4 mins) but, then, Jack Redshaw won the first of what was to be a comfortable double-figure total of corners for the visitors. This corner was soon followed by a freekick, which Alty wasted.

Another freekick soon followed and it became immediately apparent why new long-loan signing from Kendal Town, Kieran Walmsley, is regarded as something of a dead-ball expert. His rasping and curling freekick from the right only narrowly avoided conversion by a team-mate in the goal mouth (7 mins). And a third freekick in quick succession also came Altrincham's way. Still the freekicks kept coming as Broomes took another one with just eight minutes having elapsed.

The generally scrappy game meandered on to beyond the 15-minute mark. However, there was soon another excellent freekick from Walmsley, which came to Tomsett but the on-loan Blackpool midfielder unfortunately mis-kicked, inside the box (18 mins). The visitors were now getting on top and they won two corners in succession, the first from yet another Walmsley freekick and the second was won by Lawrie, operating on the Alty left (21 mins).

After another foul, this time by Dudley on Richman, another corner resulted, again taken by Lawrie. Dudley was booked by the referee for his offence. This corner was now headed, unchallenged, by Hawes, but his effort cleared the bar. Hinckley had been warned.

The Knitters did threaten, with a fierce long-range effort from Belcher, but it went wide of Coburn's right stick (27 mins). Now, Marlon Broomes pulled up off the ball seeming to have pulled a muscle or suffered something similar in his leg. He was unable to continue so Nicky Clee came on and occupied an unaccustomed left-back position, with Mark Lees moving over to replace Broomes in the centre of the defence (29 mins).

After another spell of stalemate occurred until, on 37 minutes, Adie Hawes provided some excellent cover to see off the advancing Gray at the cost of a corner to Hinckley. But soon Alty were back, winning their own sixth corner, via Richman, and, not long afterwards a good Clee run led to Reeves's deflected shot and a seventh flag-kick of the half for the visitors. Following this, a Lawrie effort was blocked and another corner resulted. At the eighth attempt an Alty corner finally produced a goal, as Hawes made another fine leap and headed firmly home as the home defence again failed to mark him. It was the on-loan defender from Alfreton's first goal for Altrincham (43 mins).

And, barely a minute later, it was 2-0 as Lawrie received the ball to the right of goal and hammered it across the face of goal and into the net, just inside the back post as an Alty player arrived on the line to make sure. Though the tannoy gave the goal to Redshaw, the players all went to congratulate Lawrie who was the actual scorer (44 mins).

Half-time duly arrived with Altrincham deservedly leading and the fact that so many of their players were playing alongside new team-mates had been impressively overcome to produce a good team performance.

At the interval, Hinckley introduced Lavery and Byrne to replace Belcher and Bragoli, with manager Dean Thomas sending his team out early for the second half. But there was no time for the changes to take effect. Walmsley was felled near the right corner and, following his free kick, Hinckley made a hash of clearing the ball. The ball got under a defender's feet and ran invitingly to Reeves who scored efficiently from 10 yards or so - his 26th goal of the season and his 19th in the last 14 games (47 mins). So, Alty had struck three times in about eight minutes (including first-half added time), either side of the interval.

Altrincham were now in control with Clee impressing in his unaccustomed role in defence, where Hawes was having his best game since arriving on loan. The first-half pattern of regular Altrincham corners continued as the total went into double figures with two more in quick succession (57 mins).

Alty's fourth arrived as Reeves got free in the inside-right channel but he unselfishly played the ball inside to the unmarked Redshaw, who capped another impressive performance with a goal, his seventh in 9(+4) games for Altrincham since arriving in October from Salford City (59 mins).

On 60 minutes Deards came on to replace Gray for United but soon Alty almost scored again as Redshaw cleverly tried to feed Reeves, who had made another intelligent run, but the ball just ran to the keeper. Till now, Coburn had not had to make a save but, at last, Hinckley belatedly began to get forward. And when Lees was penalised for holding, just outside the box, right of goal, the Knitters lined up a freekick. Newton's freekick cannoned off the end of Alty's wall and left Coburn beaten, to his right, by the heavy deflection which re-routed the ball into the net (65 mins).

Altrincham responded by almost scoring again as Richman, whose first shot had been blocked, hammered a low effort against the keeper's right upright, the ball skimming across the face of goal off the post and going for a corner from what must have been a slight deflection (67 mins). Hinckley now enjoyed a decent spell and it took a fine save by Coburn to stop a good shot from Farrell (72 mins).

Hinckley were now having their best spell of the game but Alty again raised their game to strike the goal-post once more. This time it was a well struck low shot from Redshaw, which almost made it 5-1. Then, on 79 minutes, Richman missed a good chance. Gooding was booked for fouling Clee just before, seven minutes from time, Lynch had the ball in the net but it was ruled offside against Reeves (83 mins).

So with the good numbers of travelling fans still singing for their side, the game went into three added minutes. At the death Alty won yet another corner but the referee blew his whistle before Altrincham could take it.

For a team which had only previously won twice on the road this season, paradoxically three of Altrincham's best performances this season have come away from home. They trounced Colwyn Bay 6-1 in Wales, beat Halifax 4-2 at The Shay, and now had overcome Hinckley by a 4-1 margin, which could well have been larger. It needs a few scruffy away wins to add to these to help propel Altrincham into the play-offs. The goals tonight took to 55 Altrincham's goal tally this season, the best goals per game average in the league. In all, the Robins' supporters have seen 95 league goals in 23 matches this season, again more than anyone else - so don't miss their next game, away at Workington!