ALTRINCHAM FC MATCH REPORTS


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ALTRINCHAM (0) 0
STOCKPORT COUNTY (1) 1

Vanarama National League North match
played on Tuesday, 1 January 2019, at 3pm


SUMMARY

Six hours of football against Stockport County have not witnessed a goal for Altrincham this season; just four defeats. And there were scant occasions when that looked likely to happen in this match as an efficient and well organized, rather than exciting, County side completed a league double over their Cheshire neighbours.

The visitors deserved the win but the manner of the game's only goal was somewhat fortunate. An Alty clearance some 30 yards out from goal hit the nearby Simon Richman and laid him low, with the ball rebounding to a County man. The ball was worked up the middle of the Alty defence for Warburton to score in the 28th minute.

Neither keeper was to be overworked for the rest of the afternoon and, in Alty's case, the team was unable to provide any real service to striker Jordan Hulme, who was returning after suspension.

Alty did have a decent spell around the hour mark but Stockport managed the game well, slowing things down at every opportunity. A late flurry from Alty produced a shot narrowly wide from Hancock but that was about as good as it got. With the Hatters winning the corner count by a large margin there could be no complaints from Altrincham at the outcome of the match. Altrincham dropped to ninth with this result.


SCORERS:


REFEREE: Mr Matt Corlett
ATTENDANCE: 3,383 - the biggest crowd for a home league match since the play-off match with Guiseley in 2014, which was attended by 4,632.
TEAM NEWS

Altrincham restored Jordan Hulme and Andy White to the starting eleven following their suspension and injury respectively. Alty had lost loanee Ashley Hemmings's services on the eve of the match as his employers summoned him back to AFC Fylde. So Kallum Mantack started this game on the left wing. Max Harrop was out of action with a minor knock.

Harrop was not named in the squad, as he had a minor injury; he watched the game from the directors' box.

County were unchanged from the reverse league encounter on Boxing Day.


LINE-UPS:

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks): 1. Tony Thompson, 2. Andy White, 3. Connor Hampson, 4. James Jones, 5. Tom Hannigan, 6. Jake Moult (c), 7. John Johnston, 8. Simon Richman, 9. Jordan Hulme, 10. Josh Hancock, 11. Kallum Mantack. Subs: 12. Chris Sang, 14. Sean Williams, 15. Ben Harrison, 16. Shaun Densmore, 20. Elliot Wynne.

STOCKPORT COUNTY (All blue): 1. Ben Hinchliffe, 2. Sam Minihan, 3. Scott Duxbury, 4. Jordan Keane, 5. Ash Palmer, 6. Jamie Stott, 7. Adam Thomas, 8. Paul Turnbull (c), 9. Frank Mulhern, 10. Matty Warburton, 11. Jake Kirby. Subs: 12. Dan Cowan, 13. Ian Ormson, 14. Elliot Osborne, 15. Darren Stephenson, 16. Nyal Bell


BACKGROUND

Alty's sequence of games against bogey teams continued as Stockport returned to haunt the Robins having beaten them three times already this season. Alty had never beaten last Saturday's opponenets, Guiseley,on their own ground and likewise never beaten County, home or away in an all first-team fixture.

The sides had met three times already this season with County despatching Alty on all three occasions in the league, FA Trophy and FA Cup.

The match was preceded by the now traditional reading of a Roll of Honour by club chaplain, Rev. Andy Barclay-Watts. The Roll comprised the names of people associated with Altrincham FC who had died in the previous twelve months. After the reading, there was a minute's applause.


REPORT

Altrincham kicked off towards a packed away end, which boosted the gate to a magnificent 3,383; by some distance the highest home gate of the season. Although we did not know it at the time, Hulme's second minute flick wide was to be one of the home side's better efforts all afternoon (2 mins).

Despite his shirt number, Johnston operated exclusively on the left in the first half, never swapping with loanee Mantack on the left, despite neither player getting much success on his respective flank. For County Mulhern spooned an effort well over the bar (9 mins).

After a foul by Mantack, which earned him a lecture (12 mins), County gained the match's first corner from a Kirby shot (16 mins). When, soon afterwards, the hardworking Mulhern got the ball off Moult, he forced a good save from Thompson in the game's first serious threat on goal (19 mins).

The game carried on unexceptionally with zero goalmouth action before County took the lead in bizarre circumstances. As an Alty man cleared the ball, about 30 yards from his own goal, he struck it forcefully against Richman. The combative midfield went down and, uncharacteristically, stayed down.

The ball broke fortuitously to County and Alty failed to defend the resulting incursion up the middle into the box. Warburton then slid the ball past Thompson to give County the lead (28 mins).

After this, a long shot by Hancock ran to Hinchliffe (29 mins) but, soon afterwards, County gained their second corner of the afternoon (32 mins). For Alty Mantack was having a nervy game whilst, on the other flank, Johnston was also making little impact. Up top, Hulme was seeing little of the ball.

Another County corner soon arrived through Kirby as Alty continued to struggle to build any momentum. Five minutes later a fourth County corner arrived, which ended with a wild effort from Keane (39 mins). Next, a fine tackle by White on Warburton yielded County their fifth flag-kick and a sixth followed minutes later as the visitors controlled the game.

Before the interval there was still time for a seventh County corner as Alty laboured to make any real impact on the game.


Half-Time: ALTRINCHAM 0
STOCKPORT COUNTY 1

After the visitors had kicked off, an early effort from Warburton narrowly cleared the bar (46 mins). Next, an unncessary foul by Johnston earned him a booking as he continued to operate exclusively on the left rather than switch wings as is customary (53 mins).

Altrincham won their first corner (58 mins), which the keeper only half-punched away, and this prompted a couple of minutes of decent pressure from the home side for the first time in the match.

Alty now withdrew Mantack and brought on a fellow loanee, the tall Bury striker Chris Sang (60 mins).

Hancock moved to the left with Hulme now operating behind Sang.

On 64 minutes, Cowan replaced Thomas for the visitors. After this, Alty landed a rare shot on target in the 66th minute when Hancock forced a save after a feed from Johnston.

At the other end, keeper Thompson was equally under employed as the game lacked any real goalmouth excitement. County were taking the sting out of any potential Alty repsonse by slowing the game down at every throw and freekick.

The visitors' then won a fortuitous freekick when White was harshly penalized over a 50-50 ball and the resulting freekick produced County's ninth corner-kick (69 mins).

Stephenson replaced Mulhern for County. Then a ridiculous piece of play followed as Thompson played the ball to Jones. He returned the ball to the keeper who took an air shot and conceded a farcical corner (74 mins). This led to corner number eleven and, soon afterwards, Thompson had to put a Kirby shot over the bar for another corner, number twelve, to the visitors (77 mins).

After this a Johnston cross saw Hulme go down in the box but a very plausible claim for a spot-kick went unanswered (80 mins). Next County's Osborne replaced Warburton (82 mins).

In contrast, an Altrincham corner, won in the 84th minute, was only their second of the afternoon and it was very badly taken by Johnston. After a challenge near the corner flag, Moult picked up a booking (89 mins). Another Alty corner followed just before four added minutes were decreed.

In the second of these minutes, arguably Alty's best shot of the match went narrowly wide, from Hancock. The final meaningful action was County's thirteenth corner in the 94th minute.

After an unbeaten nine-game league run from September to December, Alty are now in their worst league run of the season; four games without a win. Things do not get any easier as away trips to Boston and league leaders Chorley are followed by a visit from in-form Southport.


Full-Time: ALTRINCHAM 0
STOCKPORT COUNTY 1