In this, Altrincham's fourth and final group stage match in Group B of the nascent National League Cup, the Robins gave themselves a chance of progressing to the knock-out stage by taking three points. But three teams could still acquire more points and eliminate them.

Altrincham started with the bare minimum of first-team players required by the competition, namely just four players who had started the previous league match. And three of those four were hauled off after just 19 minutes, leaving only Lewis Banks as a player on the pitch who had started this game and the match last Saturday. And he was to be subbed at half-time.

The visitors went ahead in the 32nd minute when Sutherland converted a chance after Altrincham had failed to clear an incursion on the right.

But the game was turned on its head two minutes later when last-defender Pond, the Wolves captain, was shown a straight red as he hauled Bickerstaff to the ground.

Midway through the second half, from their sixth corner in a ten-minute spell, Altrincham equalised when left-back Kacper Pasiek, who had a fine game, fired home a low shot after the last corner in this sequence had come out to him (67 mins).

Having missed several presentable chances, Lucas Weaver put Altrincham ahead ten minutes later when debutant Griffiths's fine shot was beaten out and the incoming winger scored from close range (77 mins). Wolves were convinced that it should not have been a corner and their manager was duly booked for his protests.

Most of the remainder of the second half was played in the Wolves half as Alty held their lead comfortably to the final whistle.

SCORERS:

• 31 mins: Ethan SUTHERLAND (ALTRINCHAM 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1)
• 67 mins: Kacper PASIEK (ALTRINCHAM 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1)
• 77 mins: Lucas WEAVER (ALTRINCHAM 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1)

Alty started with just four players from last Saturday's starting eleven, the minimum allowed by National League Cup rules.

Justin Amaluzor made his first start for more than three months, after injury. On the bench, for his later debut, was Regan Griffiths, the rest of the squad comprising players who had had limited game time in recent weeks.

Wolves made seven changes to the eleven which had started and beaten Manchester City in their impressive last league outing in PL2.

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts, white socks): 30. Harvey RANDLE, 2. Lewis BANKS, 5. Jake COOPER, 16. James JONES (c), 32. Casper PASIEK, 22. Tom CRAWFORD, 18. Owen GERMAN, 14. Matty KOSYLO, 10. Alex NEWBY, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 24. Joe NUTTALL. Subs: 4. Lewis BAINES, 15. Regan GRIFFITHS, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 23. Tylor GOLDEN, 17. Lucas WEAVER, 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF, 27. Louie FALLON (gk).

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS PL2 (U21) (ALl old gold): 1. Josh Gracey, 2. Wesley Okoduwa, 3. Justin Hubner, 4. Filozofe Mabete, 5. Alfie Pond (c), 6. Caden Voice, 7. Leo Lopes, 8. Finlay Ashworth, 9. Nathan Fraser, 10. Makenzie Bradbury, 11. Ethan Sutherland. Subs: 12. Matthew Whittingham, 13. Stanley Anos, 14. Tom Edozie, 15. Fabian Reynolds, 16. Daniel Angel, 17. Luke Rawlings, 18. Saheed Olagunju.

This was Altrincham's fourth and final group stage match in the competition and only a win would give them hope of progressing to the knock-out stages. Once again, free admission was available to all spectators, courtesy of McAuliffe, "The Brownfield Experts".

REPORT:

Altrincham kicked off defending the Golf Road end. However, it was Wolves who started the better with some neat but unpenetrative passing. It took till the seventh minute for anything resembling a threat on goal to materialise and that was a tame effort from Fraser, after a cross from the left by Hubner.

Play continued uneventfully until activity on the Altrincham bench saw three substitutes stripping off, ready for action. Initial surprise at the impending triple substitution so eraly in the game was to be explained by the rules of the competition, which required four players to start the game who had also started the club's most recent league fixture.

So, a few minutes later, Newby, Crawford and Nuttall were hauled off and Weaver, debutant midfielder Griffiths and Bickerstaff replaced them, leaving Lewis Banks as the only Saturday-starter still on the pitch (19 mins).

Over the next few minutes, Altrincham settled into the game, though it was Wolves who won a corner midway through the half (23 mins). Soon afterwards, Amaluzor put Kosylo heading up the pitch towards goal but the visitors got in a timely tackle to halt his progress, though a corner was won by Alty (25 mins).

Alty loanee Pasiek was getting forward on the left and, next, his fine ball put Weaver advancing towards goal but with a home goal seeming likely, the Alty winger put his shot wide of the keeper's left post (29 mins).

Shortly aftewards, Alty gained a corner but nothing came of it and it was not long before switched to the other end. A Wolverhampton advance up the right seemed to have been halted only for the ball to find its way back towards Sutherland who made it 1-0 to Wolves with a low shot which went into the far side of the net, to Randle's right (32 mins).

There was little time for Wanderers to bask in their lead as their captain Pond, the last defender, hauled Bickerstaff to the ground, some 25 yards from goal, on the Alty right. A red card duly followed for Pond, leaving his side a man short for the rest of the evening (34 mins).

Unsurprisingly, Alty now enjoyed more forward momentum and won three corners before the interval but none of these caused any problems (41-45+2 mins).

Altrincham made two further changes at half-time with Golden and Reddin replacing Banks and Amaluzor respectively.

The hosts should have equalised in the 51st minute when an excellent lay off from Bickerstaff set Weaver in on goal but, again, he failed to hit the target with a cross-shot from the right.

Altrincham were now dominating possession and territory against the ten men with Pasiek and Reddin combining well on the left.

As the hour mark was passed, Altrincham won no fewer than six corners in the ten minutes between the 57th and 66th minutes, the last being awarded much to the annoyance of the Wolves coach. It was won by some brilliance by Reddin as he wove his way into the left of the box.

The corner, from the left, came back out to Pasiek who made space smartly before he hit an excellent low shot from the edge of the box which found the net to level the score at 1-1 (67 mins). In the aftermath of the equaliser, the Wolves coach was yellow-carded for his dissent.

Wolves responded by bringing on Angel for Fraser (69 mins). But Alty soon threatened again as Pasiek once more got forward on the left but his low cross, across the face of goal, somehow evaded Weaver at the back post. The Alty man could have had a hat-trick by this stage (72 mins).

Wolves made two further changes, with Whittingham and Rawlings replacing Ashworth and Mabete (75 mins).

Alty finally did get a second goal when an excellent 25-yard strike by Griffiths was clawed away by keeper Gracey as it headed toward the top corner, to his left. The loose ball was headed into the net, from close range, by Weaver, who had finally got his goal (77 mins).

Wolves were now on the ropes, with Reddin and Pasiek in particular causing them problems on the left whilst Golden and Weaver were a threat on the right.

The visitors made their fourth and fifth changes when Edozie and Reynolds replaced Okoduwa and Lopes (83 mins).

After an Alty corner another opening arose for Weaver, from a Bickerstaff feed, but the keper won the one-on-one duel (85 mins). Soon after there had been a wild shot from the left by Reddin, Weaver was named Man of the Match. The right-winger had certainly got into a multitude of goalscoring situations but was unable to convert more than one of his promising openings (88 mins).

Voice was booked for holding Bickerstaff, having just escaped a booking for an earlier foul (89 mins). Alty then spurned another excellent opening as Kosylo got forward, right of goal and laid the ball inside to the unmarked Reddin but the left-winger was unable to beat the keeper who deflected the ball over the bar for a corner (90 mins).

The declared three minutes of added included another Alty corner and some time spent runnig down the clock in the left corner before the final whistle left Altrincham in second place in the Group B table. However, Wolves, Oldham and Rochdale all had a fixture left to play in which any one of them could displace Altrincham from the qualifying position to participate in the knock-out stages.

The game had given many of the fringe players an opportunity to impress Phil Parkinson. In addition to Weaver's threat on the right, left-back Pasiek and winger Reddin also did well. The match also gave Griffiths a chance to make his debut and Amaluzor to get 45 minutes into his legs after his long lay-off.

Whilst this new cup competition may not have been everyone's cup of tea, the free-entry to all games, facilitated by club sponsors, had brought 6,363 additional spectators to the J. Davidson Stadium this season to spend their admission savings on refreshments and merchandise.

On the downside, four additional games, on a pitch which has had to endure plenty of bad winter weather, were not ideal but, thankfully, the games do not seem to account for any serious player injuries and have given the fringe players and those returning from injury a chance to stake their claims for regular starts.