Whilst three points earned on the pitch by beating Braintree Town will boost Altrincham ahead of a run of seven away fixtures in their next eight engagements, the loss of goalkeeper Ethan Ross to what looks like a significant injury, another unnecessary red-card for Matty Kosylo and both Regan Linney and Tylor Golden limping off in the second half give Alty cause for concern off the pitch.

On a soft surface and on a dull, damp afternoon, Altrincham took a ninth-minute lead when Alex Newby finished from close range after a Linney attempt from the left had come out to him. The Iron had been without captain George Langston at kick-off and lost defender Ryan Clampin to injury after just 16 minutes. Braintree had named only four sibstitutes so their resources are now further depleted.

Two minutes later Alty keeper Ross went down off the ball and, as he was treated, third-choice keeper 18 year-old Louie Fallon was stripped to come on, only for Ross to opt to continue on the pitch

The lead was doubled on the half-hour mark when Newby was tripped as he burst into the from the left of the box. Linney scored comfortably from the spot to make it 2-0.

Braintree had created a couple of decent chances but failed to convert either in the first "45 minutes", which grew to 52 minutes thanks mainly to the two injury stoppages.

In the second half Ross's injury proved too much and, just after he had made two successive stops to keep out Braintree shots, the keeper went down for more treatment. This time he had to go off, barely being able to walk as he was supported to the dressing room, and Academy keeper Fallon came on to make his league debut (70 mins).

Just five minutes later, after Braintree had enjoyed plenty of forward momentum, Alty made it 3-0 as Newby hared up the right wing and laid on a simple goal for Joe Nuttall (75 mins).

The defence prevented Fallon being over-troubled but the young keeper made a fine save in a one on one with Braintree's Blackwell.

Braintree did get the consolation goal that their play deserved in the 82nd minute. It came as a Braintree corner was cleared only for Cooper to fire an excellent volley into the net.

With the game into the second of six added minutes and the result a foregone conclusion, substitute Matty Kosylo ridiculously got himself sent off for the third time in fourteen months, this time for seeming to pull the hair of an opponent. A straight red card saw him despatched down the tunnel.

SCORERS:

• 9 mins: Alex NEWBY (ALTRINCHAM 1 Braintree Town 0)
• 30 mins: Regan LINNEY (penalty) (ALTRINCHAM 2 Braintree Town 0)
• 75 mins: Joe NUTTALL (ALTRINCHAM 3 Braintree Town 0)
• 82 mins: Chay COOPER (ALTRINCHAM 3 Braintree Town 1)

Having been cup-tied last week in the FA Trophy, Lucas Weaver returned to the starting line-up. Kacper Pasiek had been recalled to Preston on the eve of the match but team-mate Kian Taylor was named on the bench today.

It emerged after the game that deputy keeper Harvey Randle was missing with a broken finger so Academy keeper Louie Fallon was named on the bench. There was no word of Ollie Crankshaw or Eddy Jones who, along with Isaac Marriott, must be presumed injured for the foreseeable future.

James Jones returned on the bench

Braintree's captain Langston was out, injured, and they could name only four on their bench. Blackwell dropped to the bench as Clampin and Cooper came in to the starting eleven.

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts, white socks): 1. Ethan ROSS, 2. Lewis BANKS, 4. Lewis BAINES (c), 31. Charlie OLSON, 23. Tylor GOLDEN, 6. Elliot OSBORNE, 22. Tom CRAWFORD, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 10. Alex NEWBY, 9. Regan LINNEY, 24. Joe NUTTALL. Subs: 5. Jake COOPER, 12. Kian TAYLOR, 14. Matty KOSYLO, 16. James JONES, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF, 27. Louie FALLON (gk),

BRAINTREE TOWN (Orange shirts and socks, blue shorts) 13. Henry Gray, 3. Ryan Clampin, 6. James Vennings, 5. Louie Annesley, 11. Chay Cooper, 21. Jacob Pinnington, 18. Matt Robinson, 22. Jermaine Francis, 16, Kyrell Lisbie, 14. John Akinde (c), 20. Aidan Francis-Clarke. Subs: 7. Tom Blackwell, 12. Jamal Fyfield, 10. Alan Judge, 8. Mqrley Marshall-Miranda

18th-placed Braintree Town arrived on the back of gleaning eight points from their last four fixtures, identical to Altrincham's form in the same number of games. This improvement had followed a troubled start to the campaign after the Iron's promotion via the play-offs last season.

Just a single win came in their opening ten fixtures this season and manager Angelo Harrop subsequently lost his job. He was replaced by Steve Pitt who had guided Braintree to eighteenth place at kick-off today.

With just 28 league goals scored in 29 National League outings, Braintree were the division's lowest scorers apart from the bottom two clubs. However, they had conceded the fewest goals (jointly) of any team in the bottom ten of the National League.

The Iron had won the reverse fixture 2-0.

REPORT:

On a dull an later damp afternoon at the J. Davidson Stadium, Altrincham defended the home end as the visitors kicked off the match. Altrincham started the game slowly before they finally got forward with a fifth-minute cross from the right from Weaver but there was no one in the centre to take advantage (5 mins).

Two minutes later came their first effort on goal, a downward header by Weaver which was comfortably saved (7 mins). And a further two minutes elapsed before Linney surged towards the left bye-line but his shot was blocked and the ball came out to Newby who had a simple task of scoring from close range (9 mins).

Braintree soon won themselves a corner on their right which found the back of the net from a header but the referee's whistle had already sounded for an Altrincham freekick (11 mins).

Another Iron corner soon arrived and Ross's push on an encroaching forward before it could be taken earned the keeper a word from Mr Rollason. The corner almost produced a goal as Ross only managed to get a hand on the ball but somehow the ball was cleared off the line by Altrincham (14 mins).

Play then stopped as Clampin sat down for treatment. He was unable to recover and the visitors were forced into an early substitution with the experienced ex-Boreham Wood man, Fyfield, replacing the stricken defender (16 mins).

Play had barely restarted when Ross, like Clampin, went down for treatment off the ball. The manner of his drop to the ground suggested something was seriously amiss (18 mins). As he was treated at lenght, the substitute keeper, 18 year-old Louie Fallon, was readied to come on for his league debut. But Ross decided to carry on after treatment (21 mins).

Pinnington's advance up the Braintree right now gave Akinde a chance but his effort was blocked and the follow-up by a team mate was put wide. Braintree had had a couple of chances to score already in the game (22 mins).

However, Alty were now also threatening and, next, a Weaver cross came out to Golden who smashed a shot from 20 yards which keeper Gray did well to stop, a corner resulting on the left with Osborne, nowadays a regular corner-taker, playing it short to Weaver.

The next corner also went Alty's way, won by Linney (29 mins). Following this, Newby burst into the front of the box, left of goal but was tripped and a penalty awarded. Linney stepped up to beat the keeper confidently with a low shot to his left, making it 2-0 (30 mins).

Five minutes later Nuttall earned his side a corner but, as so often in this game, nothing came of it, Osborne's kick ending up this time in keeper Gray's arms (35 mins).

Shortly before the break, Braintree's Cooper was fouled by Osnorne but the same Braintree player's freekick from the edge of the "D" went straight to Ross (44 mins).

Seven added minutes were declared, occasioned mostly by the injuries to Clampin and Ross. Braintree won an early corner (45+2 mins) which went into the sidenetting.

Ross was now allotting his deadball kicking to Olson as he was clearly not recovered from his earlier injury treatment. The half ended with a Cooper cross nodded into Ross's arms by Francis.

The first eight minutes afer the break saw each side win a brace of corners, with Altrincham taking some time to get going after the interval (53 mins).

Crawford's was the first name in the referee's book, for a poor challenge in midfield (56 mins). A further Alty corner came and went (57 mins) before another brace were won by Braintree, neither of which amounted to a goal threat (62 mins).

When, soon afterwards, Nuttall got forward and fed Weaver, his effort was blocked and came out to Linney, just outside the box. His effort was closer to hitting the corner flag than the back of the net (64 mins).

Braintree went close to getting a goal when a fierce shot from Robinson was beaten away by Ross as was a team-mate's follow up. Straightaway, Ross stayed down and was in need of more treatment. This time there was no recovery and Fallon duly came on for his league debut. It was good to see Olson put his arm around the young keeper to encourage him, as Ross was helped off by the physio staff, the stricken goalkeeper being hardly able to walk as he edged his way to the dressing room (70 mins).

At this point Kosylo, who had been readied for a little while, replaced a limping Linney who later applied an ice-pack to his right knee (71 mins). Braintres also made another change with Blackwell replacing Lisbie (72 mins).

Any fears that Braintree might capitalise on the loss of Alty's talismanic goalkeeper were soon banished as Newby advanced on the right and his lay off gave Nuttall a straightforward task of converting to make it 3-0 (75 mins).

Altrincham made an immediate change with Preston's loanee midfielder Taylor becoming Alty's second league debutant of the game (75 mins).

Alty were protecting Fallon well and won two corners at the other end, won by Nuttall and Taylor respectively (78 mins).

AFter a foul by Kosylo, it was Nuttall who saw a league yellow for the first time this season, for a reason that was not obvious (80 mins).

Braintree finally got in behind the defence but Fallon came out to block well from Blackwell (80 mins).

Next, Golden limped off to be replaced by James Jones (81 mins) and Braintree soon won a corner. This was cleared out to Cooper whose well-struck volley from about 15 yards gave Fallon no chance and made the score 3-1 (82 mins).

As the visitors sought a second they introduced Judge to replace Pinnington (88 mins). Six added minutes were computed by Mr Rollason.

In the second added minute,a routine foul on Kosylo was met by the hot-headed Alty man pulling his opponent's hair and walking off, back towards the referee, pretending not to know he was in hot water. When refree Rollason caught up with him, he showed the errant wingman a red card, barely 27 minutes of league-match time for Kosylo since he had seen red against FC Halifax Town (90+2 mins). Presumably he now faces a four-match ban.

Altrincham came through the remaining five minutes or so of added time to record an important win before their sequence of seven away games in the next eight fixtures.

WIth Ross looking like he has no way of beig fit for Tuesday's encounter at Oldham it remains to be seen if Altrincham enter the emergency loan market, given that their only fit keeper is Fallon, as Ross's deputy Randle has a broken finger.

Braintree did not look like a team likely to be relegated and, on another day, might have scored more than their consolation goal.