After a quite dreadful first half of low quality from both sides, compounded for Altrincham by the loss to injury of Charlie Olson after 26 minutes, the second half gradually improved and culminated in a quite bizarre finale from the 87th minute to the end of some seven added minutes, in which all three goals were scored.

As well as losing Olson, his replacement, the newly signed Matt Penney, who had substituted for the central defender, was also unable to complete the match through injury.

Altrincham took the lead when a quickly taken freekick deep in their own half, by Osborne, set Linney free in the Hartlepool box. He calmly rounded keeper Smith before sliding the ball into an empty net from the left (87 mins).

On 90 minutes Linney was substituted by Kahrel Reddin and the right-winger almost immediately fed his fellow substitute Lucas Weaver, who stroked a low shot into the keeper's right-hand corner to make it 2-0 (90+2 mins).

With home fans streaming out of the stadium, Pools did get a consolation goal with the last action of the night as Charman's cross was met by Featherstone who found the net despite Ansen grabbing the ball as it crossed the line. For some reason Ansen was promptly booked.

So, from their two trips to the north-east this week, Alty had taken six points to move up to sixth-place in the league

SCORERS:

• 87 mins: Regan LINNEY (Hartlepool United 0 ALTRINCHAM 1)
• 90(+2) mins: Lucas WEAVER (Hartlepool United 0 ALTRINCHAM 2)
• 90(+7) mins: NIcky FEATHERSTONE (Hartlepool United 1 ALTRINCHAM 2)

Following their game at Gateshead, three days earlier, Alty made four changes for this game at Hartlepool. Into the starting eleven came Regan Linney, Justin Amaluzor, James Jones and Joe Nuttall as captain Lewis Baines and Alex Newby surprisingly dropped out of the squad; Jake Bickerstaff and Lucas Weaver moved to the bench.

Against his former club, Tom Crawford captained Altrincham for the first time. Meanwhile, Pools were captained by ex-Alty loanee Luke Waterfall, so both teams were led by a former opposition player.

Harvey Randle returned as the substitute keeper and Jake Cooper also returned to the bench where he was joined by new signing, defender Matt Penney.

Penney had been signed as Altrincham remained blighted by injuries with Crankshaw, Marriott, Efdie Jones, Wilson and Ross all still sidelined and with left-back loanee Pasiek having been recalled to Preston North End.

For Pools, Stephenson, Sloggett and Folarin came into their starting XI.

HARTLEPOOL UNITED (Blue and white striped shirts, blue shorts and socks): 40. Adam Smith, 5. Luke Waterfall (c), 3. David Ferguson, 21. Louis Stephenson, 7. Jack Hunter, 15. Gregory Sloggett, 18. Jamie Miley, 10. Adam Campbell, 19. Reyes Cleary, 20. Emmanuel Dieseruvwe, 27. Sam Folarin. Subs: 9. Gary Madine, 11. Luke Charman, 16. Nicky Featherstone, 17. Billy Sass-Davies, 26. Jack Robinson, 31. Owen Foster, 12. Joe Grey.

ALTRINCHAM (Red and white striped shirts, black shorts and white socks) : 21. Caleb ANSEN, 2. Lewis BANKS, 31. Charlie OLSON, 16. James JONES, 23. Tylor GOLDEN, 6. Elliot OSBORNE, 22. Tom CRAWFORD, 12. Kian TAYLOR, 9. Regan LINNEY, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 24. Joe NUTTALL. Subs: 5. Jake COOPER, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 15. Regan GRIFFITHS, 17. Lucas WEAVER, 30. Harvey RANDLE (gk) 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF, 42. Matt PENNEY

This was Altrincham's third successive away game and was their second trip to the north-east in four days, having won 1-0 at Gateshead the previous Saturday.

REPORT:

The game got off to a deceptively end to end start, with Pools winning a third-minute corner before Alty reciprocated after Linney had got into the box. In between the corners, Ansen had caused away fans some anxiety as he dallied with the ball at his feet and was almost closed down.

Following a thirty-yard effort from Dieseruvwe, which was fired from that distance and went the same distance wide of the target, Altrincham won two more corners, the latter from an incursion into the box by Linney (10 mins).

Next, Amaluzor, like Dieseruvwe, hit a shot at goal but his was on target and keeper Smith only gathered it at the second attempt (15 mins). Following this, one of what were to be several excellent tackles in this match by Banks, halted a home threat (15 mins).

Ansen then dawdled again in kicking clear as the game settled into a more mundane pattern than the opening exchanges had promised. A Cleary effort, which went wide from 18 yards, was as good as it got as the midway point of the first half was reached.

At the other end Linney poked an effort well wide before Alty suffered a blow when centre-back loanee Charlie Olson, went down injured, seemingly with a hamstring issue.

After treatement, teeneager Olson had to go off, his loss being particularly acute as fellow centre-back Lewis Baines had been rested from the squad and Jake Cooper, who was on the bench, was carrying a knock, a fact that was only to emerge after the match.

At the time, it seemed bizarre that the natural replacement, Cooper, had been overlooked and that new signing Penney had come on instead. Penney had not played for a club last season and had made just a fleeting appearance for Rochdale this campaign.

Not introducing Cooper also meant a rejig to the back four with Golden moving from left- to right-back and Banks moving from right-back to left-centre-back, with Penney slotting in at left-back (26mins).

This change of personnel contributed to a defensive mix-up soon afterwards which saw Hartlepool strike the Altrincham upright, to Ansen's right, with a home corner resulting (29 mins).

When Dieseruvwe barged Penney over into the home technical area, on the half-hour, the forward was fortunate to escape with a lecture and not a yellow card.

Play continued in unexceptional manner with neither side creating much in the way of fluency as passes went astray and petty fouls and throw-ins punctuated play.

A piece of sloppy distribution from Ansen led to Folarin needing treatment as he was closed down in the Alty box (35 mins). Mispass after mispass followed from both sides as half-time apprpoached. Folarin was booked for a foul on Linney (41 mins) before the referee inflicted three more minutes of mediocre fare on the spectators, in the form of added time.

Any thoughts that the poor quality of the the latter stages of the first half could not possibly continue into the second half were soon belied by some even more lamentable action at the start of the second half. It started with a woeful freekick over the bar by Ferguson, followed by a dreadful "pass" into touch by James Jones and a skied effort miles over the bar from Crawford, action that was interspersed by sundry petty fouls and stoppages in play (52 mins) .

It got no better as the normally dependable Ferguson now skied an effort high and wide of the Alty goal (56 mins).

The Pools management tried to shake things up with a double change, bringing on Grey and Madine in place of Folarin and Campbell (59 mins).

At last a decent shot was landed on target as Linney came to life on the Alty left. The Alty top scorere cut in from the left but his shot was undeprowered a ran to Smith but, at least it was a shot on target (60 mins).

Linney had a lively few minutes as, next, he got in a cross, which was cleared and then had a shot blocked (61 mins).

At the other end, Penney did well to halt a threat from the Pools before the hosts won a corner (63 mins). Ansen failed to get near the corner and a goalmouth scramble ensued which Alty were fortunate to survive, as Ansen redeemed himself by tipping a follow-up shot over the bar (63 mins).

Altrincham made their second change as loanee Taylor gave way to recent siging Griffiths in midfield (65 mins).

After this, for once, Dieseruvwe got the btter of Banks and won a corner as Penney covered his incursion (68 mins).

With the game into its final twenty minutes, it belatedly became a little more open. An Alty corner came and went (again) (73 mins) before the visitors made change as Weaver replaced Amaluzor and Anthony Limbrick made two changes for his side. Charman and Featherstone came on to replace Stephenso and Miley (77 mins). Charman had reportedly been an Altrincham target last summer.

Ten minutes from time it took another fine bit of work from Banks to halt Dieseruvwe before a foul left Penney down and unable to continue. Again it seemd to be a hamstring-rleated issues for the debutant. His replacement was Cooper who was apparently not fully fit (83 mins)

With the game heading towards a goalless draw, a freekick from deep inside his own half by Osborne drifted over Hunter, leaving Linney in on the goalkeeper. The Alty man evaded the starnded keeper and slotted the ball into the empty net from the left to stun the home supporters, who promptly started to exit the stadium in appreciable numbers (87 mins).

In the ninetiteh minute Linney sat down and was taken off, to be replaced by Reddin. Immediately, Reddin was causing havoc on the right wing. First, his cross saw Weaver unable to get more than a glancing head on the ball before the winger got in behind the defence and laid the ball inside for Weaver to steer a low shot to Smith's right and into the net. near his right-hand upright. So, in double-1uick time, it was improbably now 2-0 to the vsitors (90+2 mins).

No added time had been announced. Next, from an Ansen punt upfield Nuttall won a corner on the right, from which Alty played down time near the flag (90+4 mins). However, as the game went into the seventh added minute, the hosts managed tp score a consolation goal following a freekick. In a scramble, after Grey's cross from the right, Featherstone's header was deemed to have crossed the line as Ansen grabbed it (90+7 mins).

For some reason, presumably alleged timewasting, Ansen was immediately booked after the goal had been awarded.

So, a match of generally poor quality somehow had produced three goals in the closing stages with the home supporters showing their dissastiscation at the ouctome as their players went to salute them. Conversely, Altrincham's travelling support was ecstatic, if not somewhat stunned by the two very late goals, which lifted their team to sixth place.