ALTRINCHAM FC MATCH REPORTS

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ALTRINCHAM (1) 1
BLYTH SPARTANS (1) 1

Vanarama National League North match
played on Tuesday, 5 March 2019, at 7.45pm

SUMMARY

The outcome of this match was influenced by a decision by referee Lewis Smith. After Altrincham, playing fluent football, had taken a 21st minute lead through John Johnston's shot from the front edge of the box, Blyth equalised in questionable circumstances just six minutes later.

Two Altrincham players had tried to clear the ball near the byline, to the right of their own goal. The ball came off one Alty defender, onto the other, and then to goalkeeper Tony Thompson, who collected the ball. Whilst the referee's interpretation of this as being a back-pass was itself contentious, what exacerbated the punishment was his allowing Blyth to take the freekick from a much more favourable distance than it would have been, had it been taken from where the offence actually occurred (i.e. where the handling occurred). Apparently the Laws of the game permit this, stating "indirect free kicks to the attacking team for an offence inside the opponents’ goal area are taken from the nearest point on the goal area line which runs parallel to the goal line".

But, with Alty's wall standing on the goal-line, all Robbie Dale had to do was hit it into the upper reaches of the net from about seven yards, which he duly did.

Although Alty might have complaints about Mr Smith it has to be said that in the second half Altrincham did not reach the level of their first-half performance with too many attacks taking too long to develop. So the Robins dropped two points and lost ground on their play-off rivals, two of whom won tonight.

Altrincham fielded an unchanged starting eleven, but on the bench Elliot Wynne, back from his loan to Trafford, replaced the injured Steven Drench and Max Harrop returned from injury to displace Simon Richman.

SCORERS:

REFEREE: Mr Lewis Smith, who had previously reffed the 3-3 draw against Darlington in December 2018.
ATTENDANCE: 718
TEAM NEWS

Altrincham remained unchanged apart from on the bench where Max Harrop and Elliot Wynne returned, in place of Simon Richman and Steven Drench. So, again, there was no place for Mason Fawns nor for the injured Ben Harrison, Matthew Chadwick and James Poole.

For Blyth, Dan Maguire was making his 300th appearance. In goal for the visitors, Peter Jameson returned after suspension, Nicholson replaced Watson at left-back and Mullen came in for Oliver.

LINE-UPS:

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts, 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. Sean Williams, 9. Joe Piggott, 10. Josh Hancock, 11. Yusifu Ceesay. Subs: 12. Callum olan, 14. Max Harrop, 15. Jordan Hulme, 16. Shaun Densmore, 20. Elliot Wynne

BLYTH SPARTANS (All grey): 1. Peter Jameson, 2. Lewis Horner, 3. Alex Nicholson, 4. Kieran Green, 5. Nathan Buddle, 6. Louis Laing, 7. Jarret Rivers, 8. Damen Mullen, 9. Daniel Maguire, 10. Sean Reid, 11. Robbie Dale. Subs: 12. Jack Butler, 14. Connor Oliver, 15. Jamie Holmes, 16. Michael Liddle, 17. Adam Wrightson.

BACKGROUND

Blyth's involvement in the FA Trophy had caused the postponement of the original fixture in January and then, in February, bad weather had caused a further postponement.

Mike Garnett reminds us of the historical record beteween Altrincham and Blyth Spartans. This season Alty lost the reverse fixture, 2-1, at Croft Park.

Altrincham went into the match on the back of a 6-0 win at Curzon Ashton and a 4-0 victory at home to Chester. The Robins lay in fifth place in the league, nine points ahead of fourteenth-placed Blyth. The Spartans had enjoyed a tremendous run of fourteen games unbeaten in all competitions before their current sequence of a single win in eight outings.

REPORT

Perversely, immediately after a pre-match watering of the pitch by the sprinklers, it started to rain and this was to continue very steadily throughout the match.

Blyth won the toss and, for some reason, elected to change ends; so Alty attacked the Golf Road and kicked off the game. A Ceesay cross after 45 seconds set the tone for Altrincham being on the front foot in the opening stages. The home side's first corner arrived in the fifth minute and, after this, a Williams effort curled narrowly wide of goal.

Altrincham were putting together some sustained passing movements before they won another corner (13 mins). For their part, the visitors' first serious incursion was in the 18th minute when Laing was allowed to advance, unchallenged, up the middle. With Alty struggling to clear the ball, Spartans gained a corner. After this Alty again strung together multiple passes with manager Parkinson repeatedly exhorting his charges with shouts of "patience".

Then Thompson was called into action to field a smart backheeled effort from Reid but, soon afterwards, Altrincham took the lead. Jones came out of defence and fed White. He responded to Johnston's request to have the ball and fed the winger. JJ advanced to the penalty "D" where he abruptly stopped, changed direction, and fired a right-footed shot past several defenders and the keeper to make it 1-0 (21 mins).

Altrincham continued to have the upper hand before the flow of the game was disrupted when Hampson sat down for treatment before being able to continue (25 mins). Following this stoppage Blyth's Nicholson moved up the inside-left channel and fed Maguire. From inside the box,near the left bye-line he fed the ball into the goalmouth where Moult and Hannigan went for the same ball, which came off their combined efforts and into the nearby Thompson's arms. Blyth appealed and referee Smith awarded a freekick for a handled backpass. This was a dubious decision in itself, as there seemed no intent in the sequence of events.

But the official then compounded his dubious award by having the freekick taken from a yard outside the six-yard line when Thompson had actually handled the ball barely a couple of feet from his goal-line. Apparently the Laws of the game more or less permit this, stating "indirect free kicks to the attacking team for an offence inside the opponents’ goal area are taken from the nearest point on the goal area line which runs parallel to the goal line".

The freekick was laid off to Dale who blasted it into the net for a controversial equalizer (27 mins).

Despite the setback, Altrincham were soon back constructing multi-pass moves as the rain continued to fall. With an hour or so remaining it still seemed that Alty would have enough to overcome their opponents.

When a ball came into Jameson's arms off a Blyth player there were predictable cries from the crowd for a freekick for a handled back-pass but on this occasion Mr Smith deemed it to be unintentional, which was the correct decision (36 mins). The one-way traffic continued towards the visitors' goal but Alty were not unduly troubling the Blyth goalkeeper.

Shortly before the interval Reid, for some reason, took two wild lunges in succession at two Alty players who each managed to evade his challenges and Mr Smith for some reason took no action. However, as play continued the referee had a quiet word with Reid which suggested that he had both seen and not approved of the Blyth man's actions, even though he had taken no formal action against the perpetrator (44 mins). But Reid did not learn his lesson and after taking down Piggott even Mr Smith had to book him (45+1 mins).

Half-Time: ALTRINCHAM 1
BLYTH SPARTANS 1

Given Alty's dominance in the first 45 minutes there was not undue concern at the start of the second half that Altrincham would be unable to secure a win in the second half. Early encouragement came when Ceesay won an early corner (47 mins) but Blyth soon began to enjoy more of the ball than they had had in the first half. Indeed, a goalmouth scramble, following a freekick awarded against White,saw Buddle's deflected prod at goal spin towards goal. But Thompson did well to arch back and tip the ball over the bar for a corner (54 mins).

There was then a similar incident at the other end as Moult poked an effort at goal which Jameson managed to touch onto the bar. Four successive corners to Altrincham soon followed, before Hulme came on for Piggott, who had had a quiet game (59 mins).

There were no chances over the next few minutes but Rivers's 68th minute cross from the right presented Maguire with a good chance in the goalmouth but he screwed the ball wide. This prompted a better spell from Blyth which earned them three corners during in a two-minute spell (73 mins). Next, Harrop replaced Ceesay on the Alty left (74 mins).

Alty's best effort in the next few minutes came when a goalbound Johnston effort struck his own team-mate Hulme (78 mins). With time ticking away, Alty belatedly landed another shot on target but Jameson pushed Harrop's effort round the upright for a corner (82 mins). The resulting corenr by Johnston was clawed away by Jameson from under his crossbar and then cleared.

Holmes now replaced Reid for Blyth as goalkeeper Jameson continued to wind down time, repeatedly kicking defenders' back passes to the extremity of his penalty area to force Alty players to chase him down before he would pick up the ball.

Altrincham continued to play their passing game but without sufficient tempo to trouble the well organised visitors. With the game into added time, Butler replaced Maguire for the Spartans (90+1 mins). After four added minutes the final whistle confirmed two dropped points for Altrincham, who fell to seventh in the table.

Whilst, with some justification, Altrincham could point their fingers at Mr Smith's controversial first-half decision, which produced Blyth's goal, if Altrincham are to be play-off contenders, they really should have had the ability and guile to overcome that setback during the following hour of play.

Full-Time: ALTRINCHAM 1
BLYTH SPARTANS 1