Match Report


ALTRINCHAM (0) 0 BISHOP'S STORTFORD (1) 2

Blue Square Bet North Match
played on Saturday, 10 March, 2012, at 3pm


SUMMARY

Bishop's Stortford completed a league double over a lacklustre Altrincham and it could have been worse, had Stuart Coburn not saved an 88th minute penalty, conceded by Shaun Densmore. The Alty keeper saved Gayle's spot kick, diving to his right.

In the first half Altrincham were trying to build up patiently, as they had on Tuesday night in the first 45 minutes- and once again they lacked the guile to get through the opposition defence. Fielding a 4-2-1-3 formation, with Reeves on the right, Twiss and McGivern, on the left, up front, Altrincham barely troubled the visitors' keeper.

They fell behind after 33 minutes when Coburn could not hold a shot from the Bishops' left and Gayle was on hand to tap home. The visitors doubled their lead after 52 minutes when Sappleton was allowed to gather the ball and turn past Mark Lynch on the front edge of the box. The burly striker drove a rising shot past Coburn to make it 2-0. One positive for Altrincham was a promising performance by youth team striker Duncan Watmore, who came on in the second half on the right wing.


SCORERS:

  • 33 mins: Dwight GAYLE (ALTRINCHAM 0 Bishop's Stortford 1)
  • 52 mins: Ricky SAPPLETON (ALTRINCHAM 0 Bishop's Stortford 2)


    REFEREE: Mr S Copland


    ATTENDANCE: 844 (16 in away end)


    TEAM NEWS

    It was only three weeks ago that Altrincham had met Bishop's Stortford for the first time this season. In that game, Alty had been unlucky to lose after striking the woodwork three times.

    Prior to that the side's had only ever met in the FA Trophy in 1981/2 when Alty won 3-1 after a 1-1 draw at Moss Lane.

    Alty were without Nicky Clee, who had become a father on the morning of the match, and the injured Marlon Broomes. Manager Lee Sinnott deployed a new formation with Shaun Densmore moving to left back and Mark Lynch to central defence in a 4-2-1-3 formation. Up front, Damian Reeves was on the right, Leighton McGivern on the left and Michael Twiss came back into the side in the middle of the attack. Youth team striker Duncan Watmore returned to the bench today.


    BACKGROUND:

    Mike Garnett's statistics tell us that the outcome of previous games has been as follows...

  • At Moss Lane: P1 W0 D1 L0 F2 A2
  • At Bishop's Stortford: P2 W1 D0 L1 F3 A2
  • Overall: P3 W1 D1 L1 F5 A4


    LINE-UPS

    ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts, red socks): 1. Stuart COBURN, 2. Kieran WALMSLEY, 5. Matt FLYNN, 3. Mark LYNCH, 6. Shaun DENSMORE (capt); 4. Simon RICHMAN, 8. Scott PHELAN; 7. John MILES; 10. Damian REEVES, 9. Michael TWISS, 11. Leighton McGIVERN, Subs: 12. Mark LEES, 14. Chris LYNCH, 15. James LAWRIE; 16. Duncan WATMORE, 18 Adam REID (gk),

    BISHOP'S STORTFORD (All blue): 1. Jordan Archer, 2. Jack Lampe, 3. Sebastian Dunbar, 4. Alli Abdullahi, 5. Sean Francis, 6. Phil Anderson, 7. Dwight Gayle; 8. Matt Johnson; 9. Reneil Sappleton, 10. Reece Prestedge (capt), 11. Ryan Melaugh. Subs: 12. Paco Craig, 14. Max Lette Jallow, 15. Jordan Pavett, 16. Junior Dadson, 17. Scott Shulton


    REPORT

    In dry, but cloudy, conditions at Moss Lane, Bishop Stortford kicked off towards the away end and within seconds had won a freekick for a foul by Scott Phelan on the edge of the centre circle. As on Tuesday night, goalkeeper Coburn appeared to be following instructions to play the ball short to his defensive colleagues rather than to pump it upfield for the front three to chase.

    The best early moment for Altrincham came in the third minute when a fine Walmsley freekick, from the right, just evaded Twiss in the goalmouth (3 mins). Next, in a pattern which was to become woefully repetitive during the afternoon, a slow Altrincham build-up broke down some distance from the opposition goal. The same thing had happened throughout the first half on Tuesday night against Stalybridge, when slow build-up after slow build-up failed to trouble the marshalled opposition ranks.

    Next, however, McGivern got in a decent cross from the left before Richman, for the third successive game deployed in central midfield, earned a freekick on the right in his own half. From this Walmsley fed Reeves, who played a one-two with Phelan but the ball ran to Archer in the visitors' goal.

    The visitors now enjoyed a couple of minutes of probing the Alty defence, whilst the Alty manager continued to exhort his players to "pass the ball", which they did but without taking any of the opposition out of the game in the process. Referee Copland then played the "advantage" well, allowing an Alty move to continue before going back to book the Bishops' Johnson for an earlier foul on Phelan in the centre of the pitch (13 mins).

    But the game was not setting the pulse racing and the atmosphere at Moss Lane was much quieter than usual as the pedestrian pace on the pitch unsurprisingly failed to ignite the atmosphere on the terraces. A visitors' throw on their left, twenty yards from the Alty goal, led to the first corner of game, awarded to the Hertfordshire team.

    Referee Copland then inadvertently blocked McGivern's clearance before, first Densmore, then McGivern, each lost possession, a theme which went "viral" through the Altrincham team during the afternoon.

    A determined tackle from Richman drew applause but then the resulting Alty move petered out. In fact, the nearest to a goal at this stage came when the visitors' Dunbar cleared the ball in his own box but it struck Reeves and rebounded only narrowly over the visitors' crossbar (18 mins). Following a throw, Bishop's Stortford gained another corner, at the end where their small, but much travelled, band of supporters were located. Prestedge overhit the corner and was told off by his manager who shouted, "I told you to hit it lower".

    The crowd, just two short of Alty's best of the season, was still not finding much to get it excited as the home team continued to try and build patiently, but too often the interchange of passes produced either lateral or backward movement rather than incision. Well before the half hour, there were groans from the crowd at yet another backward pass. Things improved a bit when two Walmsley crosses were put in but these were both cleared.

    A brave header was needed from Matt Flynn to concede a corner as the burly Sappleton threatened. From the corner, Coburn lost the ball from his grasp and a second corner resulted, followed by a third - and the visitors' fifth of the afternoon. Alty finally scrambled the ball clear before Melaugh came to pitch side for a dose from his inhaler.

    A Phelan effort from more than 20 yards cleared the bar but it was judged to have been deflected for an Altrincham corner, which came out to McGivern, whose shot was scuffed but, nevertheless, produced another corner from a deflection.

    With a goal not really looking to be on either team's agenda this afternoon, one suddenly arrived. A strong shot from left-centre was stopped by Coburn but he could not hold it and the loose ball fell towards two unmarked Bishops' players, Sappleton and Gayle. It was the right-winger, Gayle, who completed the formalities of giving his side the lead, just as he had done three weeks ago in the reverse fixture (33 mins).

    A couple of minutes later, Altrincham won a corner from a Walmsley cross which Anderson put out of play and then Lynch did well to stop a Bishop Stortford counter-attack. After this, Coburn saved from Prestedge before Twiss headed a Walmsley cross over the bar (37 mins)

    Alty's top scorer Damian Reeves had to come deep to try and get the ball, so poor was the service to him up front. For the third time in his last eight appearances, Michael Twiss was booked, this time conceding a freekick for a foul on Melaugh.

    At last the home crowd had something to cheer when Matt Flynn went past two opponents and his resulting cross won a corner. Though he had just been booked, Twiss now conceded another freekick before the sides traded mistakes. With the game into added time, a Reeves cross yielded a corner for his side. Miles's corner, from the left, found Reeves running away from goal and having to adjust to get a header towards the target but the ball just cleared the bar (45+2 mins).

    So, half time arrived with Altrincham trailing after a hugely disappointing first-half performance. But whereas a similarly ponderous opening forty-five minutes on Tuesday had been transformed by the introduction of Nicky Clee, the Alty wingman was not available today.


    Half-Time: ALTRINCHAM 0 BISHOP'S STORTFORD 1

    Alty kicked off the second half, having made no changes and defending the Golf Road end. The pattern of cheaply lost possession started again as, first, Richman and then Twiss lost the ball. However, after this, McGivern turned and shot narrowly wide from a Richman cross.

    Just as it looked as if Altrincham were playing with a bit more conviction they conceded a second goal very poorly. There seemed relatively little danger as Sappleton received the ball in a central position just outside the box. With Mark Lynch in close attendance, the big front man nevertheless turned past the Alty defender with ease before hitting a rising ball firmly past Coburn, who had little chance of stopping it; 0-2 in the 52nd minute.

    Altrincham had scored in every previous home game this season but when, immediately after the goal, Coburn had to save well from Gayle, it looked like an even heavier beating was more likely than the Robins' getting back into the game. Alty's next effort was a volley from Phelan which went wide (55 mins). Just after the hour mark Lynch did well to see off Gayle before Alty substitutes Watmore and Lawrie came on for Miles and McGivern. For reasons best known to himself, in a temperature which was comfortably in double figures Celsius, Lawrie took to the field in gloves - and short sleeves. He slotted in on the left, with Watmore on the right (61 mins).

    After a few more uneventful minutes, as Alty prepared to take a freekick, Chris Lynch replaced Richman in central midfield (65 mins). Alty were then grateful to see Sappleton get the ball under his feet in the Alty goalmouth before Dunbar went down in the Altrincham box and was booked for simulation (66 mins). From the resulting freekick, taken on the Alty right by Lawrie, the ball found Twiss unmarked at the back post but he did not get his header right. But Altrincham were still unable to unlock the opposition as the game went into its final ten minutes. But with six minutes left Reeves got free, from Phelan's pass, but his lob over the keeper came back off the crossbar (84 mins). A corner followed, from which a Matt Flynn shot was blocked, before Lawrie volleyed over the bar.

    Play continued as Sappleton and Phelan were named as the respective Men of the Match. Just when it seemed the afternoon was beyond redemption, it took an even worse turn as Densmore tripped an opponent in the outer reaches of the penalty area. But Coburn saved Gayle's spot kick, diving to his right to keep the ball out (88 mins). Just as normal time was ending, a Densmore corner swung in from the left but the keeper just managed to clear it off the line before Bishop's Stortford wound down the clock with two gratuitous substitutions.

    First Dadson came on for Melaugh (90 mins) and then fifteen seconds from the end of the three added minutes, Pavett replaced Sappleton. In between these changes a strong shot from Chris Lynch hit his team-mate, Damian Reeves. The final whistle soon sounded to end a hugely disappointing performance from an Altrincham side which again showed that it is not yet able consistently to combine a patient passing game with an ability to find gaps in the opposition defence. Tuesday's game had looked to be heading the same way until Clee and Phelan prompted a more direct approach but today there was no second half improvement and, after the game, manager Lee Sinnott conceded that the change of team-shape today had not worked.

    On a bizarre day in the BSBN, the damage to Altrincham's play-off hopes was minimized by the fact that only one of the top seven teams at kick-off actually won today - whilst Bishop's Stortford were just one of five teams in the bottom six who earned three points from the day's fixtures.


    Full-Time: ALTRINCHAM 0 BISHOP'S STORTFORD 2