In this third group-stage National League Cup match for the hosts, Altrincham secured an ultimately comfortable 4-1 win over Stoke City's PL2 side in their National League Cup clash at the J. Davidson Stadium, despite falling behind in the first half.

The Robins initially fielded just four of the starting eleven from their recent League match against York City and ended the game with two Academy players on the pitch and another, unused, on the bench.

The Potters took a 23rd minute lead when young Alty Academy keeper Louie Fallon's kick clear went straight to Griffiths who advanced and scored with a low shot.

Shortly before the interval, Altrincham equalised when Eddy Jones's corner from the right towards the back post was nodded on twice by Alty heads towards the near post where, a third header, from James Jones, found the net (43 mins).

After bringing on three half-time substitutes, one of them, Tylor Golden, smashed home a second Altrincham goal, from a Reddin lay-off (51 mins). A Tom Crawford header from an Eddy Jones freekick from the left made it 3-1 after 58 minutes.

The scoring was wrapped up in the second added minute at the end of the game when a superb through-ball from Liam Humbles set Jake Bickerstaff in on goal and he beat the advancing Stoke keeper to make it 4-1.

SCORERS:

• 23 mins: Jack GRIFFITHS (ALTRINCHAM 0 Stoke City PL2 1)
• 43 mins: Jack JONES (ALTRINCHAM 1 Stoke City PL2 1)
• 51 mins: Tylor GOLDEN (ALTRINCHAM 2 Stoke City PL2 1)
• 58 mins: Tom CRAWFORD (ALTRINCHAM 3 Stoke City PL2 1)
• 90(+2) mins: Jake BICKERSTAFF (ALTRINCHAM 4 Stoke City PL2 1)

Compared with the side that faced York City in their most recent league game, just four players from that game started this one. Phil Parkinson also named two Academy players on the bench (Harrison Howells and Afernee Demnis) as well as starting the match with Academy goalkeeper Louis Fallon.

Alty included three ex-Potters in their starting eleven (Banks, Reddin and Eddy Jones).

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts and white socks): 27. Louie FALLON 2. Lewis BANKS, 15. Jake COOPER, 16. James JONES, 3. Eddy JONES, 19. George WILSON, 8. Isaac MARRIOTT (c), 14. Matty KOSYLO, 20. Kharel REDDIN, 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF. Subs: 1. Ethan ROSS, 4. Lewis BAINES 6. Elliot OSBORNE, 12. Afernee DENISE, 15. Liam HUMBLES, 18. Harrison HOWELLS, 23. Tylor GOLDEN

NB The Stoke line-up on the teamshet had players nos. 7 and 11 reversed compared with the team cited on the Club's Twitter X account. Below is the team as on the team sheet.

STOKE CITY PL2 (All black): 1. Alfie Brooks, 2. Jaden Dixon, 3.Syd Agina, 4. Jake Griffin, 5. Freddie Anderson, 6. Wiktor Gromek, 7. Daius Lipsiuc, 8. Sol Sidibe (c), 9. Chinonso Chibueze, 10. Emre Tezgel, 11. Jack Griffiths. Subs: 12. Dara McGuinness, 13. Noah Cooper (gk), 14. Kieron Willox, 15. Josh Maskall, 16. Christy Grogan, 17. Dean Adekoya, 18. Oghosaiwi Enabulele

In their previous NLC matches Altrincham had "won" a draw in a penalty shoot out against Blackburn Rovers before losing 0-4 to Manchester United PL2.

As for Stoke's NLC record, they had lost 2-1 at Oldham Athletic after beating Forest Green Rovers 4-0. The Potters arrived as the bottom club in PL2.

REPORT:

Altrincham started the game attacking the empty away end, with just two sides of the stadium accommodating the crowd who had ben afforde free entry courtesy of sponsors, property firm OBi.

An uneventful opening period included an unchallenged run up the midle by Tezgel but this came to nothing. Overall play was fairly even before Crawford's shot, from at least 25 yards, flew wide of the target (9 mins).

Stoke's Griffin was then panicked into conceding a corner but, though nothing came of this, Reddin played in Kosylo soon afterwards only for him to shoot disappoiningly wide from 12 yards (11 mins).

Next, a fine 50 yard pass from Mariott produced a race for the ball between Kosylo and Brooks, which the Stoke keeper just won as he kicked clear (14 mins).

Reddin was clearly out to impress his previous employers with a number of runs up the right wing and his next incursion won Alty another corner.

The game's first serious save saw Fallon make a fine stop from Chibueze's shot before Agina won the Potters a corner (18 mins).

But disaster struck in the 23rd minute when Fallon's kick clear went to Griffiths, on the edge of the box, and the Stoke man made no mistake as he slotted the ball past the exposed young keeper (23 mins). However, Fallon redeemed himself a little later to save a 22-yard shot from Tezgel as the visitors enjoyed a spell on top.

Just after the half-hour mark, Kosylo went down in the box after a good Altrincham move but nothing resulted from his appeal (31 mins). Nevertheless, Alty's improvement continued as a Banks cross flashed across the face of the visitors' goal.

An Alty corner came and went (34 mins) before a fine cross from the left by Kosylo came to Banks, towards the back post. He opted not to shoot and laid the ball off for Wilson whose sot cleared the bar (39 mins). Moments later, Kosylo picked up a booking when he clipped Tezgel as the forward advanced at pace (40 mins).

Banks soon won a corner on the right. Taken by Eddy Jones, and sent towards the back post, Cooper headed the ball back to Bickerstaff, in the centre of the goalmouth, and he nodded it further back towards the near post, where Alty won a third successive header in the box as James Jones nodded the ball into the net to make it 1-1 (43 mins).

A minute of added time saw Kosylo feed Wilson whose shot was blocked (45+1 mins).

Altrincham made a triple change at the interval as Golden, Baines and Humbles replaced Banks, James Jones and Wilson respectively (46 mins). For Baines, it was his one hundredth appearance for the club.

The first meaningful action saw Reddin hit the side-netting but, shortly afterwards, the ex-Stoke winger was fed by smart play from Bickerstaff. Though Reddin was halted, right of goal, he laid the ball back to Golden who, from just outside the box, smashed a rising shot into the upper reaches of the net at the keeper's near post (51 mins).

Moments later, Stoke's Lipsiuc fed Chibueze who dragged an excellent chance badly wide of the post (52 mins).

At this point the visitors brought on Maskell to replace the disappointed Chibueze (53 mins).

Goalkeeper Fallon escaped with another disappointing kicked clearance which was seized on by the opposition but Tezgel continued the Stoke trend of poor finishing by weakly directing the ball gently to the Alty keeper's arms (53 mins).

Anderson was now booked for a foul on Crawford and the resulting freekick was to prove costly for Stoke. From the left, Eddy Jones's freekick was headed home at the near post by the leaping Crawford to make it 3-1 (58 mins).

Just before the hour mark, Academy winger Harrison Howells replaced Kosylo on the left wing (59 mins).

The game proceeded with Altrincham comfortable with their two-goal lead before Stoke brought on Enabulele for Gromek (67 mins).

Two minutes later, Elliot Osborne replaced Marriott, whose rehabilitation after injury had shown glimpses of his former midfield mastery (70 mins). Almost immediately, Osborne's ball was relayed left by Crawford, to Howells on the left wing. The young winger fired a decent shot across goal, which cleared the bar (74 mins).

Less impressively, Osborne was then dispossessed but, for at least the third time, Stoke spurned a good opening with poor finishing as, this time, Enabulele's weak shot was easily saved by Fallon (75 mins).

The theme of disappointing finishing from the visitora continued when Tezgel made space well but shot badly wide (79 mins).

Adekoya soon replaced Lipsiuc for the Potters (80 mins) and, soon afterwards, team mate and captain Sidibe was booked for a foul on Humbles, who was playing impressively in the Alty midfield (81 mins).

Alty appealed for a penalty when Reddin was played in, but taken out, as his shot inside the box went wide, a corner resulting (82 mins).

However, Humbles had no grounds for complaint when he was booked for preventing a Stoke counter-attack in the centre of the pitch (83 mins).

As time ticked by, Crawford turned well and forced a save from Brooks, at the cost of a corner (88 mins). Four added minutes were computed by Mr Cooper and, in the second of these, a superb ball over the top by Humbles dropped to the feet of Bickerstaff who took a touch then coolly beat the keeper to make the score 4-1 (90+2 mins).

Golden picked up a needless caution as he steamed in on Brooks after the keeper had gatered the ball (90+4 mins). A very late Stoke corner followed but this came to nothing.

This was an impressive performance from an Alty side that was, throughout, far from the first-choice eleven. The margin of victory was aided by some woeful finishing from Stoke who spurned at least three decent openings with weak or misdirected efforts.

Alty's final match in the NL Cup group stage will see Wolverhampton Wanderers visit the J. Davidson Stadium in January 2025.