ALTRINCHAM FC MATCH REPORTS
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ALTRINCHAM (0) 0
BROMLEY (1) 1
played on Tuesday, 24 November, 2020 at 7pm
behind closed doors
SUMMARY:
A disappointing showing from injury-ravaged Altrincham resulted in Bromley completing a professional job and taking away the three points in less than invigorating fashion.
Altrincham paid for a slow start as Bromley snatched a fourth-minute goal. Hackett-Fairchild, an ex-Bromley player loaned back to the club from Portsmouth, was allowed to advance towards the left byline from whered he fed Alabi. The former Tranmere man netted comfortably from close range.
However, Alty grew into the game and had more of the possession for the rest of the half but without creating a decent chance other than a clever volley over the keeper, but narrowly wide, by Adarabioyo (28 mins).
And it was Bromley who then went close to scoring the game's second goal, on the half-hour mark, when Cheek got free and fed Hackett-Fairchild whose shot was pushed out by Thompson. It needed smart work from Hampson to prevent a goal. Hampson was to pay the price for his diligence as he seemed to injure himself and later had to be replaced by Senior (39 mins).
Bingham seemed to have doubled the Bromley lead in the 61st minute but his effort was ruled out belatedly for Alabi being offside. Despite Bromley being reduced to ten men, when Williamson's lunge on Sass-Davies earned him a deserved early bath in the 68th minute, Alty laboured vainly to create anything resembling a good chance. Promising approach work was consistently undone by a poor final ball.
And the final disappointment of the evening was the very harsh dismissal of Kosylo in added time for a foul which seemed to deserve no more than a yellow card.
SCORERS:
- 4 mins: James ALABI (ALTRINCHAM 0 Bromley 1)
REFEREE: Mr Jacob Miles (Warwickshire). He is a tennis umpire as well as a football referee.
ATTENDANCE: Behind closed doors.
TEAM NEWS:
For Altrincham, Shaun Densmore returned in place of Joel Senior at right-back; Ritchie Sutton came in for Tom Hannigan as Phil Parkinson rotated his defenders. Further forward, Yusifu Ceesay replaced the injured Andy Dales. Ex-Scunthorpe winger Ryan Colclough made his first appearance in the squad after signing today on what is presumably a short-term deal. Unavailable through injury were Andy Dales, Tom Peers, Andy White, Sean Williams, Toby Mullarkey, Simon Richman and Dan Mooney.
There was a surprise in the name of Ryan Colclough on the bench. He had recently left Scunthorpe by mutual agreement, after being bailed on an assault charge, and was the 29th different player named in an Altrincham league match squad this season in only the eleventh game such has been the wave of injuries at the club.
Bromley included James Alabi, Chris Bush and Michael Cheek who had all featured against Alty for other clubs previously. On their left wing, Reeco Hackett-Fiarchild had been loaned back to Bromley from Portsmouth.
LINE-UP:
ALTRINCHAM (Red shirts with white chest panel, black shorts and white socks): 1. Tony THOMPSON, 20. Shaun DENSMORE, 28. Billy SASS-DAVIES, 4. Ritchie SUTTON, 3. Connor HAMPSON, 6. Jake MOULT (c), 29. Alistair SMITH, 15. Matty KOSYLO, 11. Yusifu CEESAY 10. Josh HANCOCK, 9. Fisayo ADARABIOYO. Subs: 5. Tom HANNIGAN, 19. Joe ROBBINS, 24. Joel SENIOR 31. Jamie McDONALD, 34. Ryan COLCLOUGH.
BROMLEY (All blue) 1. Mark Cousins, 2. Joe Kizzi, 4. Billy Bingham, 5. Chris Bush, 9. Michael Cheek, 10. James Alabi, 11. Reeco Hackett-Fairchild, 14. Kory Roberts, 17, Byron Webster (C), 18. Ben Williamson, 16. Liam Trotter. Subs 8. Frankie Raymond, 12. Tom Purrington, 6. Jack Holland, 7. Luke Coulson, 19. Harry Forster
BACKGROUND:
This match had been rearranged from October after Covid problems at the time at Moss Lane. To facilitate the visitors, kick off was brought forward to 7pm.
It was the fourth home fixture in Alty's last five league games.
REPORT:
Within fifteen seconds of kick-off Ritchie Sutton had been clattered as Alty defended the Golf Road end on a rare dry night this season at the J Davidson Stadium. Kosylo soon fired in a very wild shot over the target but he was penalised, in any case, for handball.
As the game went into its fourth minute, Altrincham fell behind; it was the third successive home match in which they had fallen behind in the opening stages. This time the goal came up the visitors' left side as Hackett-Fairchild got towards the byline and cut the ball back for Alabi to score a simple goal from close range (4 mins).
At the other end Hampson got forward but, when he cut in from the left, his weaker foot, the right, could only muster a weak effort which ran easily to goalkeeper Cousins (7 mins). The first corner of the evening was won by Bromley's Kizzi from a deflected shot but it was poorly taken, a consistent factor for both sides in this game (11 mins). When Ceesay was fouled by Bingham, the referee took the Bromley man's name (12 mins).
Moments later Ceesay was felled again, for the third time in a game that was just twelve minutes old. The tall winger went right across the pitch to consult his manager which suggested that he had a problem but he resumed playing.
Altrincham were on the back foot at this stage but began to improve as the game reached the twenty-minute stage. However, a solid Bromley team were not giving the hosts anything resembling a scoring chance. The best that Altrincham could muster was a 27th minute corner, which was met by Sutton's header but, disappointingly, it went very wide.
Nevertheless, things were looking better for Alty as a Kosylo ball to Adarabioyo saw the big striker cleverly lift the ball over keeper Cousins, on the volley, but his side-footed effort went narowly wide of the keeper's left post (29 mins).
But, immediately, Altrincham almost fell two goals behind. Cheek got free, up the inside-left channel, and Thompson was only able to push his shot out to Hackett-Fairchild. Fortunately, the alert Hampson made a vital interception, albeit at the cost of a knock (30 mins). Next, at the other end from a freekick just outside the right of the box, Kosylo badly overhit the dead ball (32 mins).
With Alty certainly holding their own at this stage, Hampson had to give way to his earlier knock and he was replaced at left-back by Joel Senior (39 mins).
Altrincham had the better of the minutes before the interval but without looking like scoring.
| Half-Time: ALTRINCHAM 0 BROMLEY 1 |
In the second half Bromley soon threatened when, following a kicked clearance from Thompson, Williamson had a presentable chance but blasted his shot very wide and high across the goal (50 mins). Play was pretty scrappy at this stage and there was further disruption for Alty when Ceesay gave way to debutant Colclough on the Alty left (53 mins).
After Adarabioyo had forced a corner from goalkeeper Cousins's block, Altrincham won an immediate second flag-kick but this was disppointingly taken by Kosylo.
The hosts continued to see plenty of the ball but Bromley stood firm and, indeed, it seemed they had doubled their lead in the 61st minute.
After Bush had dispossessed Kosylo, Hackett-Fairchild had advanced on the left before moving inside to feed Bingham who netted the ball. But the goal was ruled out by the linseman's flag, which seemed to be for Alabi standing in an offside position in the eyeline of goalkeeper Thompson. It was a fortunate escape for Altrincham.
Alabi was now replaced by Coulson (62 mins) and, a minute later Alty swapped strikers as McDonald joined the game in place of Adarabioyo (63 mins).
A potential game-changing moment arrived in the 68th minute when Williamson clattered Sass-Davies as they both went for an underhit Hancock pass to his centre-back. Fortunately, Sass-Davies recovered after treatment but Williamson cannot have been surprised to see a red card.
As Alty enjoyed possession and an extra man, Bromley broke up play as Hackett-Fairchild sat down for treatment (72 mins). Alty did then muster a rare shot on goal as Senior forced a save with a shot from the left (74 mins). But Bromley won the game's next corner and, soon afterwards, Hackett-Fairchild won a freekick off Densmore, who was rather harshly booked (80 mins).
Altrincham were still seeing much of the ball but an 84th minute corner was the most they had to show for it. At this stage Hackett-Fairchild again stopped play by sitting down once more for treatment and this time he left the pitch aftewards. Having survived a corner with just nine men on the pitch, Bromley introduced Holland for Hackett-Fairchild (85 mins).
Moult's attempted scissor-kick now ran to the keeper, before Colcough got a yellow card for a foul on Trotter which seemed unexceptional to most observers, except the referee (89 mins). Six added minutes were decreed and, in the first of these, a foul by Kosylo induced Mr Miles to produce not the expected yellow but a red card, much to the amazement of the recipient. Kosylo is no stranger to a red card but on this occasion the punishment did not seemed excessive for the crime (90+1 mins).
So the final minutes featured ten-a-side football, with the visitors comfortably achieving their goal and leaving with three points from a functional and efficient, rather than inspiring, exhibition of football. Alty will come up against many more such teams at this level as they attempt to re-establish themselves in top-flight non-League football.
| Full Time: ALTRINCHAM 0 BROMLEY 1 |