Altrincham progressed to Round Two of the Cheshire Senior Cup with a 4-2 win on penalties after finishing level (1-1) with 1874 Northwich after ninety minutes.

With a starting eleven including just two players who had started a National League game this season (James Jones and Sam Roscoe), Altrincham took a fortieth-minute lead through trialist Bruno Andrade, the former QPR and, more recently Gateshead, forward, who appears to be on trial at Moss Lane.

But Matt Woolley equalised from the penalty spot for the visitors in the 69th minute and there was to be no further scoring before the end of five added minutes at the end of normal time.

Matt Gould was the hero of the shoot-out, saving the first two Northwich penalties after Sam Roscoe and Owen German had netted theirs. Hayden Lindley, presumably another trialist, thumped in a third penalty for Altrincham before Northwich made it 3-1.

Reserve player, teenager Harrison Howells, then saw his kick saved before Northwich closed the gap to 3-2. However, Andrade converted his kick to clinch the tie 4-2 on penalties.

SCORERS:

• 40 mins: Bruno ANDRADE (ALTRINCHAM 1 1874 Northwich 0)
• 69 mins: Matthew WOOLLEY (ALTRINCHAM 1 1874 Northwich 1)

With a starting eleven including just seven players who had squad numbers but only two had started a National League game this season (James Jones and Sam Roscoe), Altrincham had a very unfamiliar look. The other five players with squad numbers were Gould, Burroughs, Williams (who, however, strangely wore no.11), Tom Jones and German.

There were three trialists in Lawton, Andrade and Lindley and an Alty reserve in Wright. Lawton had been brought up at Crewe Alexandra and had spent last season on loan at Hereford FC. Andrade had played against Alty before, though he had started out at QPR and reached the first team. Since then he had had loans at Aldershot Town, Wycombe Wanderers and Stevenage before joining Woking in 2015, where he was a first-team regular.

Two seasons followed at Boreham Wood, followed by two more with Lincoln City. After that came spoelss with Salford City, Stevenage (again) and Boreham Wood (again). Last season he played three times for Maidenhead United.

As for Lindley who was a junior at Blackburn Rovers, then Manchester City and Aston Villa. In 2022 he played briefly for Newport County.

In addition, Phil Parkinson and Neil Sorvel handed the technical area duties to the reserves' management team of Ross Speight and Danny Jarrett. The first-team management were observers at the game, however.

LINE-UPS:

James Jones was the sole survivor from Saturday's starting eleven.

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts, red socks): 21. Matt Gould, 32. George Burroughs, 2. Sean Lawton, 5. James Jones, 16. Sam Roscoe, 8. Olly Wright, 11. Loui Williams, 4. Hayden Lindley, 18. Owen German, 9. Bruno Andrade, 20. Tom Jones. Subs: 14. Joel Bailey, 17. Oliver Partington, 15. Jack Chandler, 22. Harrison Howells, 19. Harry Douglas.

1874 NORTHWICH (Yellow shirts, grey shorts and socks): 1. Ellis Allan, 2. Isaac Noble, 3. Jamie Nicholson, 4. Matthew Fenton, 5. Michael Ibeto, 6. Lucas Weir, 7. Matthew Birchall, 8. Matthew Woolley (c), 9. Maxwell Chimenes, 10. Eric Byrne, 11. Fenton Green. Subs: 12. Kacper Mialowski, 14. Benji Mullarkey, 15. Jonathan Sodhi, 16. Jordao Costa, 17. Adelayo Adekoya

Benji Mullarkey is Toby Mullarkey's brother.

In this first of four successive home games, Altrincham entered the Cheshire Senior Cup for 2023-24.

After the pitch had been heavily watered, Altrincham kicked off towards the Hale end. The game soon settled into a recurrent patern of copious possession football from the hosts, but no end product of note, as the unaccustomed team-mates in the Altrincham eleven got to know each other.

Following an impressive advance by Burroughs, Tom Jones was played in and netted but he was ruled offside (6 mins). More good work from Tom Jones then earned Altrincham the game's first corner, on the right, taken by Lawton (7 mins).

There was little of note in the way of incident as Alty continued to have the lion's share of possession before they won another corner, which came to nothing (18 mins). No one was having an outstanding or a dreadful game for Altrincham as play continued uneventfully.

As the game continued towards the half-hour mark, Northwich had a better spell as Woolley won his side a corner on the left, which prompted some vocal support from the visiting supporters which broke the respectful hum of conversation from the crowd prior to that (28 mins).

Another away corner soon followed as Burroughs, facing his own goal, had to shovel the ball over his own crossbar just after the half-hour mark.

Finally, the deadlock was broken in the 40th minute when Andrade was set running up the middle and he calmly slotted the ball past the advancing goalkeeper to make it 1-0.

Tom Jones was working hard up front and he was left hobbling briefly after coming off worse in making a tackle for a 50-50 ball. One added minute was decreed which became a little longer as Alty won two conrers in succession, though the referee blew for the break before the second could be taken.

Northwich kicked off the second half as the game restarted with no changes of personnel.

The visitors threatened after 50 minutes with a cross which Lawton had to head clear. However, neither keeper had been troubled so far and that continued to the hour-mark. The game was also pleasantly largely devoid of fouls.

Just before the hour, Northwich brought on Mialowski for Nicholson (58 mins) before 1874 enjoyed another good spell and, when German fouled Mialowski, the visitors had a freekick some 45 yards out. Fenton's freekick was comforatbly collected by Gould (63 mins).

German did better soon afterwards with an excellent pass but Andrade failed to gather it (65 mins).

Northwich made another change when Benji Mullarkey, brother of Alty's former defender Toby, replaced Byrne. Soon after this another foul by German, this time on Green, gave the visitors a freekick taken by Weir. More seriously, following this, another Alty foul gave the visitors a penalty, which Woolley converted to make it 1-1 (69 mins).

Immediately Costa replaced Noble for the visitors (70 mins). Northwich, buoyed by their equaliser, now enjoyed another good spell before Alty made a change with 16 year-old Howells replacing Tom Jones at thep top of the attack (74 mins).

Three minutes later, another 16 year-old, Chandler, came on for Loui Williams and then captain James Jones gave way to Joel Bailey (76 mins). With eight minutes remaining, the bearded Partington replaced the bearded Wright to complete the home changes (82 mins).

Northwich now won a corner before a curling shot from Green narrowly cleared the bar (83 mins).

When Chandler was fouled, to the left of the box, German's freekick led to a cross from which Andrade struck the underside of the bar (85 mins).

Altrincham's pressure continued with three corners in two minutes before five added minutes were announced.

In the fourth minute Adekoya came on for Northwich's Ibeto, presumably with a view to his taking a penalty. And so, to penalties it proved to be as the final whistle led to a shoot-out, which was to be staged at the Gold Road end.

The penalty sequence was as follows:

1. Sam ROSCOE beat the keeper comfortably. (ALTRINCHAM 1 1874 Northwich 0)
2. Matthew Woolley had his kick saved by Gould, diving to his right. (ALTRINCHAM 1 1874 Northwich 0)
3. Owen GERMAN hit his penalty down the middle. (ALTRINCHAM 2 1874 Northwich 0)
4. Lucas Weir's effort was saved by Gould, again to his right. (ALTRINCHAM 2 1874 Northwich 0)
5. Hayden LINDLEY smashed his penalty into the roof of the net to the keeper's right. (ALTRINCHAM 3 1874 Northwich 0)
6. Fento Green scored despite Gould going the right way. (ALTRINCHAM 3 1874 Northwich 1)
7. Harrison HOWELLS spot-kick was saved. (ALTRINCHAM 3 1874 Northwich 1)
8. Benji Mullarkey sent Gould the wrong way to convert his penalty. (ALTRINCHAM 3 1874 Northwich 2)
9. Bruno ANDRADE made no mistake, to clinch the tie. (ALTRINCHAM 4 1874 Northwich 2)

So, Altrincham progressed 4-2 on penalties. It had been godd to see some of the emerging talent at Altrincham and also the trialists. Whether we will see any of them in the first team in the near future remains to be seen.