ALTRINCHAM FC MATCH REPORTS

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BOSTON UNITED (0) 1
ALTRINCHAM (1) 2

Vanarama National League North match
played on Saturday, 5 January 2019, at 3pm

SUMMARY

Altrincham put an end to a run of five games in all competitions without a win with this deserved victory at the Jakemans Stadium.

After an undistinguished start to the game, Altrincham began to apply some pressure and they got their reward with a 24th-minute goal. This was scored by Josh Hancock, with a low shot from the edge of the box after good work by Max Harrop on the left. Ten minutes later it was 2-0 to the visitors when John Johnston's cross from the right was met by Jordan Hulme's glancing header into the far corner of the net.

However, Alty did not build on their interval lead and spent much of the second half in their own half. But, despite seeing plenty of the ball, Boston lacked the bite to break through the Alty lines until they won an 80th-minute penalty, conceded by a foul challenge by Jake Moult. Davies just about got the spot-kick past Thompson's dive to his right to set up a potentially nervy ending. But Altrincham rode out the closing stages, as well as five added minutes, without any really serious alarms.

The three points lifted Altrincham up to sixth place. With Ben Harrison taken ill on the team coach en route to Lincolnshire and loanee Chris Sant also missing this match through illness, Altrincham will be hoping for their recovery ahead of the club's visit next Saturday to league-leaders Chorley. In terms of player availability they were boosted by the reappearance of James Poole as a late substitute in this game, following his long injury lay-off.

SCORERS:

REFEREE: Mr Dean Watson
ATTENDANCE: 964, (68 in away section. Lowest league gate for Boston this season.)
TEAM NEWS

With Elliot Wynne going on loan at Trafford, Alty had no goalkeeper on a substitutes' bench, which was further depleted when Chris Sang reported ill on the eve of the match and Ben Harrison suffered sickness on the coach en route to the game. This gave youth striker Ben Elliott the opportunity to be named in his first league game squad for the first team. Otherwise, Max Harrop replaced loanee Kallum Mantack on the left wing.

Boston also had to make a late change as Rollins did not survive the warm-up and was replaced on the home bench by goalkeeper Seb Malkowski. The Pilgrims' new loan signing from Alfreton, Callum Chettle, started for the hosts. A number of the home players had followed manager Craig Elliott from his former club, Shaw Lane.

LINE-UPS:

BOSTON UNITED (Amber and black stripes, black shorts and amber socks): 1. George Willis (c), 2. Ben Davies, 3. Ashley Jackson, 4. Andi Thanoj, 5. Lewis Gibbens, 6. Ryan Qualter, 7. Max Wright, 8. Brad Abbott, 9. Gavin Allott, 10. Callum Chettle, 11. Nicky Walker. Subs: 12. Tai-Reece Chisholm, 14. Spencer Harris, 15. Jonathan Wafula, 16. Jordan Slew, 17. Seb Malkowski (gk).

ALTRINCHAM (Purple): 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. Max Harrop. Subs: 12. Kallum Mantack, 14. Sean Williams, 15. James Poole, 16. Shaun Densmore, 17. Ben Elliott.

BACKGROUND

Alty started the game on a run of five matches without a win, four of these being league fixtures. Boston had won the reverse fixture 2-0 at Moss Lane but Alty had won the last encounter at York Street, 1-0, the season before last.

REPORT

On an overcast afternoon in front of Boston's lowest league gate of the season, a reflection of the Pilgrims' recent poor form and competition for the New Year sales, Altrincham kicked off, attacking the the more distant end from the visiting supporters.

The opening stages were scrappy with a Boston corner the only event of note (6 mins). Another uneventful six minutes passed by before Hannigan was harshly penalized. From the freekick, Allott headed the ball back across goal from the back post (12 mins).

Next, a poor clearance from Andy White continued Alty's undistinguished start to the game and this led to a Boston shot which flew narrowly wide, with Thompson at full stretch (17 mins).

Belatedly, Altrincham came to life and, after a good passing move, they had two successive goal-bound shots blocked by the home defence (20 mins). Thanoj was booked in the aftermath of this spell of play and this goalmouth action prompted Alty to maintain their attacking momentum. After a fine ball from Moult had located Harrop on the left wing, Harrop fed the ball inside to Hancock who scored with a well-placed low shot from about 15 yards to give Altrincham a 1-0 lead (24 mins).

But, despite the deadlock being broken, play reverted to a fairly nondescript nature for the next seven minutes until Johnston won Alty's first corner (31 mins). Keeper Willis managed to tip the ball across his box as the home side remained on the backfoot following the opening goal. With strong vocal support for the Robins, a lowish cross from the right was met by a low, glancing header from Hulme which left the keeper flat-footed as it found the far corner of the net, making it 0-2 to Altrincham (34 mins).

A fine ball forward from Hannigan now found Hulme, whose attempted dink over Willis was just reached by the home keeper, with an Alty corner soon following (35 mins). Andy White was having a rather mixed afternoon and, next, his mispass went into touch with Thompson having raced over to the touchline in a forlorn attempt to stop it doing so. The Alty keeper grabbed the loose ball when it was already dead and was fortunate not to be booked for this blatant gamesmanship (36 mins).

Boston continued to labour as half-time grew closer. A Harrop run led to his shot which went wide (40 mins) before Hulme had a better effort well saved from the lively Harrop's feed moments later.

On 42 minutes Moult was penalised for holding on the front edge of the box, slightly to Boston's left. After the resulting freekick had hit the wall, the referee immediately awarded another home freekick just a couple of yards further left, still on the front edge of the penalty area. Again the freekick, by Davies, went into the defensive wall (43 mins). From the follow-up, Thompson saved well, to his right.

The referee found three added minutes for the first half. In the first of these a fine 25 yarder from Hancock was pushed over the bar by Willis for a corner. And there was time for a good Alty build-up before half time, which culminated in Harrop's shot earning another corner. But at half-time the goal-margin remained two goals in favour of Altrincham.

Half-Time: BOSTON UNITED 0
ALTRINCHAM 2

Two minutes after the restart Andy White was booked after hauling down Walker just inside the Alty half. And four minutes later the Alty right-back tripped an opponent with the home support, not surprisingly, calling for a second yellow and, therefore, also a red, neither of which were forthcoming from Mr Watson.

Next, a Johnston shot was saved and came to Harrop near the left byline. His cross curled out of play before landing on the top of the Boston crossbar (53 mins). When Harrop was tripped by Davies on the front edge of the Boston box, the home defender joined his opposite number two in the referee's notebook (55 mins). The resulting freekick by Johnston was punched away by Willis. At the other end, a long range Boston effort was comfortably saved by Thompson (57 mins).

An Alty corner, won by Richman, came and went before the home side brought on Wafula for Abbott (58 mins). Three minutes later Barnsley loanee, Tai-Reece Chisholm, came on for fellow Boston loanee, Chettle.

The already booked Andy White then transgressed again and could count himself very fortunate not to see a second yellow card. Instead, he got a stern talking-to and was, almost immediately, wisely taken off by Phil Parkinson and replaced by Shaun Densmore (63 mins).

The second half continued in undistinguished fashion, although Hulme did have the ball in the net on 67 minutes but there was a clear offside involved and the goal did not stand. Following this, Wright's late challenge on Hampson saw the home left-back booked on 69 minutes.

Next, Tony Thompson was again guilty of gamesmanship as he loitered over a goalkick and he was spoken to by Mr Watson (72 mins). Moments later a foul on Hancock caused the referee to blow his whistle with Hulme in possession and advancing towards goal (74 mins). Following this, Boston brought on Slew for Walker (75 mins). Thus far, the second half had seen relatively little attacking momentum from Alty as they held onto their two-goal advantage fairly comfortably.

Mr Watson's patience with Thompson understandably snapped when the keeper again tried to wind down the clock and he was deservedly booked (79 mins). At this point James Poole came on for Harrop. Through injury, Poole had not played in any of the previous ten league matches since making his sole league start of the season at home to Ashton United.

However, within seconds, Boston were thrown a lifeline as Allott was brought down inside the Alty box, left of goal. Davies's penalty-kick was almost kept out by Thompson, diving to his right but the ball just found its way into the bottom corner of the net to make it 1-2 (80 mins). It was the second successive home game in which the defender had netted from the spot.

Five minutes from the end of normal time, Sean Williams replaced John Johnston who left the pitch at a snail's pace despite the referee's exhortations to hurry up.

However, before that point was reached Alty got themselves into a defensive middle and conceded an 88th minute corner. Boston wasted this with an overhit ball and Altrincham did a good job of riding out the additional time, during which Boston were unable to create anything resembling a decent chance to equalize.

Mr Watson had proclaimed a minimum of five added minutes. This was completely unsurprising given Thompson's repeated behaviour and Johnston's slow trudge off the pitch when subbed. Such behaviour is often counter-productive in terms of the additional time added at the end of the game.

On the positive side, for their second successive visit to York Street, Altrincham left with all three points which lifted themn back into the play-offs in sixth place, with a game in hand on most of those above them.

Full-Time: BOSTON UNITED 1
ALTRINCHAM 2