ALTRINCHAM FC MATCH REPORTS

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TORQUAY UNITED (1) 1
ALTRINCHAM (2) 2

Vanarama National League match
played on Tuesday, 2 February, 2021 at 7.45pm
behind closed doors

SUMMARY:

At a wet and windy Plainmoor Alty almost took an eighth minute lead when a fine twenty-yarder from Mooney hit the bar. The Alty winger was playing well when he injured himself in committing a foul but resumed after treatment.

Hampson was then booked for a foul by a somehwat officious Mr Quelch and from the freekick Cameron forced a block from Thompson at the back post but the ball ran loose and the Torquay man managed to poke it home to put his side ahead in the 22nd minute. Troubles mounted for Altrincham as Mooney then had to give way to his injury and he was replaced by Colclough (25 mins).

But Alty drew level from the penalty spot after Hancock had been blocked off inside the box by Sherring. Hancock himself converted the penalty impressively (33 mins).

After that it was all Alty up to the interval. The visitors were deprived of a goal when the home keeper dropped the ball, unchallenged, and after Alty had put the ball in the net Mr Quelch disallowed the goal for an alleged foot up though the ball was loose. But Alty got their reward shortly afterwards, in the 45th minute, when Colclough swept the ball in from the left into the far corner past a motionless keeper, from a Hancock feed. So Alty led 2-1 at the break.

The second half was a dull affair with Alty mostly on the back foot but with Torquay creating absolutely no threat at all, depite making three substitutions around the hour mark. With the game drifiting to its conclusion a shot by Hancock semed to be going wide but the keeper got a hand to it and in the aftermath Jake Moult was sent off for reasons which mystified everyone (87 mins). So a great result was marred by injury to Mooney and the mystifying dismissal of Moult.

SCORERS:

REFEREE: Mr Adrian Quelch
ATTENDANCE: Behind closed doors.
TEAM NEWS:

Last time out, Yusifu Ceesay was absent through tonsilitis but he was on the bench tonight, as was Curtis Miller, so Simon Richman and Ritchie Sutton droppped out of the squad. The starting eleven was unchanged.

Torquay made one change as the veteran Dean Moxey returned from suspension. Without injured striker Danny Wright, The Gulls had not looked as potent as previously in recent games.

LINE-UP:

TORQUAY UNITED (Tellow shirts, blue shorts. white socks): 1. Shaun MacDonald, 4. Kyle Cameron, 7. Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, 8. Asa Hall (c) , 10. Armani Little , 12. Adam Randell, 16. Sam Sherring, 21. Dean Moxey, 23. Aaron Nemane, 31. Joe Lewis, 34. Ben Whitfield. Subs: 11. Jake Andrews, 25. Billy Waters, 32. Max Sheaf, 26. James Hamon (GK), 24. Rob Street.

ALTRINCHAM (Red shirts with white chest panel, black shorts, white socks): 1. Tony THOMPSON , 3. Connor HAMPSON, 5. Tom HANNIGAN, 25. Toby MULLARKEY, 24. Joel SENIOR, 29. Alistair SMITH, 6. Jake MOULT (c), 15. Matty KOSYLO, 7. Dan MOONEY, 10. Josh HANCOCK, 28. Byron HARRISON. Subs: 2. Andy WHITE, 12. Curtis MILLER, 11. Yusifu CEESAY, 34. Ryan COLCLOUGH, 23. Tom PEERS.

BACKGROUND:

This was Alty's 13th away game out of 21 league fixtures this season and it had been brought forward from the following Saturday because of Torquay's FA Trophy involvement.

Torquay started the game ten points clear at the top of the table whilst Altrincham lay seventh. But both clubs had amasssed an identical points haul over the previous five games.

The last time that the teams had met was in 2015/16 season, since when both clubs had been relegated. Alty went down in 2016 in a season in which Torquay also flirted with the drop. The Gulls survived that season but relegation caught up with them two years later forcing them to spend a season in National League South.

They bounced straight back, winning the South division in 2019. In the curtailed 2019-20 season they were fourteenth in the National League when the fixtures were terminated.

In the eight previous matches between Altrincham and Torquay United, Alty had won only once, a 2-1 victory in Cheshire in 2014/15 season.

The overall record is:

REPORT:

On a night of swirling rain at Plainmoor, Torquay kicked off against an Alty side which had travelled down from Cheshire during the afternoon. The opening few minutes were uneventful.

After five minutes winger Mooney almost played in Harrison, inside the box, and the Alty number seven was soon tormenting the hosts again with asuperb shot from twenty yards which beat the keeper but cannoned back off the crossbar (8 mins).

But play switched immediately and Thompson had to be alert to make a double save at the other end from Nemane (9 mins). Play was switching from end to end again, soon afterwards as a Kosylo cross was followed by Whitfield's shot at Thompson from just outside the box (14 mins). Whitfield then won the game's first corner.

After fifteen minutes, Mr Quelch saw fit to stop the game and give the Alty management a protracted lecture presumably for some perceived comment from the technical area.

Although Torquay won another corner, which Lemonheigh-Evans overhit, Mooney then threatened again with a good diagonal run at the end of which the lively winger hurt himself as he fouled an opponent. After treatment he carried on but was not moving freely (20 mins).

Things took a further downturn for Alty when Hampson was booked, fairly harshly, for a foul on Nemane before an even worse blow befell the visitors as The Gulls took the lead. The freekick following Hampson's foul, from deep out on the Torquay right, was met by Cameron at the back post.

Thompson blocked his header well but the ball rebounded off the Alty keeper and, in a melee, the prostrate Cameron somehow poked the ball over the line to give Torquay the lead (22 mins).

And after Hampson's booking and conceding a goal, a torrid few minutes for Alty ended in Mooney having to limp off and be replaced by Colclough (25 mins). With Colclough on the left, Kosylo, who was to have an uncharacteristically quiet match, moved to the right wing.

Alty remained on the back foot as Senior's fine tackle halted Little (27 mins) but they were given a route back into the game when Hancock turned towards goal and, as he advanced inside the box, he was crudely blocked off by Sherring.

It was a clear penalty and Hancock drove a fine spot kick into the upper reaches of the net to the keeper's left to level the score (33 mins).

Rain continued to fall steadily as the equaliser prompted Alty to dominate much of the remainder of the first half, although Randell did force a routine save from Thompson (38 mins). The officious referee then summoned Kosylo and his captain, Moult, for a lecture for reasons that were not clear before Alty won a 44th minute corner, off Sherring.

Goalkeeper MacDonald, under no pressre, dropped the corner and an Alty boot hooked the ball goalwards where a team-mate put it into the net. Mr Quelch was having none of it, however, and awarded the fortunate keeper a freekick for a supposed raised foot by Alty as they legitimately went for a loose, bouncing ball.

Fortunately Alty immediately did score a goal that even that even the referee could not rule out.

Senior's ball from the right was relayed further left by Hancock on the edge of the box. From the left, outside the box, Colclough fired a superb shot across the keeper into the far corner of the net to stun the hosts and put Alty 2-1 ahead (45 mins).

An Alty corner was the final action of an entertaining first half in which Alty had shown character to come back from conceding the opening goal.

Half-Time: TORQUAY UNITED 1
ALTRINCHAM 2

At the break White replaced the booked Hampson at left=back before a forty-yard thunderbolt from Alistair Smith flashed just wide of the post (47 mins).

Fired up by a Gary Johnson pep talk, Torquay got the upper hand in the opening quarter of an hour of the half, but without remotely threatening to score. Johnson then made three changes in a four-minute spell as Waters replaced Hall (60 mins), Street came on for Little (62 mins) and Andrews took over from Nemane (64 mins).

Next, Lemonheigh-Evans picked up a card for a foul on Moult (70 mins) as an uninsipring second half drifted on. Alty made their second change in the 74th minute when Ceesay replaced Harrison (74 mins).

Torquay huffed and puffed whilst Alty seemed relatively content to hold what they had in the way of a lead against toothless opposition.

An 82nd minute shot over the bar was the nearest the hosts got to troubling Thompson before Alty could have wrapped the game up with a breakaway as Hancock set Kosylo running at goal. But as MacDonald came out to confront the Alty winger, Kosylo's shot deflected off the keeper for a corner (85 mins).

After the corner a low Hancock shot seemed to be going just wide but MacDonald decided to try and save it, right on the byline. He seemed to lose the ball and after a melee, Mr Quelch saw fit to book Cameron and, to his astonishment, also the already booked Moult. So the Alty captain was sent off for reasons which were far from clear (87 mins).

Five added minutes were proclaimed which Alty saw out without too much trouble to secure a deserved win at the home of the runaway league leaders. Alty moved back to fourth, eighth on PPG, before they play again on Tuesday at home to Wrexham.

Full Time: TORQUAY UNITED 1
ALTRINCHAM 2

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