Despite free entry for season-ticket holders and just a £5 charge for adult spectators, only 623 spectators witnessed an eventful game of six goals, six missed penalties (one of them in the most bizarre fashion) and five goals from the spot.

Altrincham, having made seven changes to their starting eleven, started brightly and were two up inside ten minutes. Kahrel Reddin smashed in a shot from the left after six minutes, followed by a collector's item, an Altrincham goal from a corner, which made it 2-0. The scorer was Taylor who headed in from an Osborne corner.

An excellent strike from 25 yards by Kuol made it 2-1 after 19 minutes.

But then debutant Alty keeper Rob Lainton was belatedly adjudged to have conceded a penalty, which Turner-Cooke converted to make it 2-2 (29 mins).

When Pasiek and Cooper collided in the 58th minute, Kuol found himself free and he shot past second-half substitute keeeper Harvey Randle to give the Toon a 3-2 lead.

Alty had a great chance to make it 3-3 when they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Thompson. Up stepped Joe Nuttall who seemed to slip as he went to kick the ball and it did not seem to move (77 mins). Play restarted with a freekick to Newcastle.

It looked to be the end of the road for Alty as, despite repeated attacks, they trailed until the 90th minute when man of the match Reddin's cross was nodded home by Amaluzor to send the game to a penalty shoot-out.

That started disastrously as Regan Griffiths, who had played well in midfield, saw his effort saved. Harrison then put Newcastle ahead 0-1.

Reddin just about beat the keeper to make it 1-1. Next, Newacastle's Stanton fired over the bar before Jake Cooper did the same for the Robins, leaving the tally at 1-1.

The sixth penalty was blasted home by Turner-Cooke to put the visitors ahead. Matty Kosylo restored parity before Randle saved Neave's penalty.

The ninth penalty was scored by Amaluzor with a cheeky chipped effort, giving Alty the lead for the first time.

Up stepped Shahar who hit his spot-kick into orbit, which gave Altrincham a 3-2 win from the shoot-out.

SCORERS:

• 6 mins: Kahrel REDDIN (ALTRINCHAM 1 Newcastle United U21 0)
• 10 mins: Kian TAYLOR (ALTRINCHAM 2 Newcastle United U21 0)
• 19 mins: Garang KUOL (ALTRINCHAM 2 Newcastle United U21 1)
• 26 mins: Jay TURNER-COOKE (penalty) (ALTRINCHAM 2 Newcastle United U21 2)
• 58 mins: Garang KUOL (ALTRINCHAM 2 Newcastle United U21 3)
• 90 mins: Justin AMALUZOR (ALTRINCHAM 3 Newcastle United U21 3)

With Saturday's important FA Trophy tie in mind, Alty made seven changes for this game and probably would have made more but for the rule that they had to include four players who had started the prevous Saturday's match. So, in addition to new signing Rob Lainton in goal, (Alty's fifth custodian utilised this season), they fielded a side displaying many fringe players and rested a lot of regular starters.

However, selection was limited by injuries with Ross, Crankshaw, Wilson and Marriott, all sidelined for substantial periods, whilst Newby also remained out of the squad with his more recent injury.

Manager Phil Parkinson had hinted that Marriott could be in the squad to-night but he was not.

With Lucas Weaver cup-tied in the FA Trophy, he started against Newcastle tonight as did Matty Kosylo, following his four-match suspension for his red card against Braintree. Included on the bench were Remi Thompson, who has been on loan at Avro and Harvey Randle, with loanee keeper Ansen not included but attending the match.

Jake Cooper became the sixth Alty man to wear the captain's armband this season as the Robins started with a 3-5-2 system, with Golden at right-back, Cooper central and Pasiek on the left.

Newastle's last PL2 outing had been a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal. They made three changes for this game as Shahar, Stanton and Neve came into the starting eleven.

ALTRINCHAM (Red and white striped shirts, black shorts and white socks) : 26. Rob LAINTON, 23. Tylor GOLDEN, 5. Jake COOPER (c), 32. Kacper PASIEK, 6. Elliot OSBORNE, 12. Kian TAYLOR, 14. Matty KOSYLO, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 17. Lucas WEAVER, 24. Joe NUTTALL, 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF. Subs: 2. Lewis BANKS, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 16. James JONES, 15. Regan GRIFFITHS, 22. Tom CRAWFORD, 28. Remi THOMPSON, 30. Harvey RANDLE (gk) .

NEWCASTLE UNITED U21 (Crimson and navy blue hooped shirts, navy blue shorts, crimson socks ): 1. James Taylor, 2. Leo Shahar, 3. Dylan Charlton, 4. Scott Bailey, 5. Cathal Heffernan (c), 6. Ciaran Thompson, 7. Garang Kuol, 8. Ellis Stanton, 9. Sean Neve, 10. Jay Turner-Cooke, 11. Johnny Emerson. Subs: 12. Luke Craggs, 13. Will Anderson (gk), !4. Rory Finneran, 15. Joe Brayson, 16. Matheos Ferreira, 17. Darren Palmer, 18. Alfie Harrison.

This was Altrincham's eleventh cup-tie this season and the tenth of those to be played on the pitch at the J. Davidson Stadium.

Given that the pitch had also staged 16 league games and been inundated with rain over the autumn and winter, its surface remained very soft. It is not alone in that respect with several other NL clubs experiencing postponements in recent weeks.

REPORT:

Newcastle kicked off towards Golf Road. But it was Weaver who was soon in action tracking back on the right to halt Emmerson (3 mins). Soon after this, Pasiek, who had a mixed game, lost the ball and the visitors fired well over the bar (5 mins). But it was Altrincham who snatched an early lead when Weaver moved inside, evaded a couple of challenges, and fed Reddin on the left. The winger cut in and smashed a shot across the keeper into the far side of the net (6 mins).

Not long afterwards, Weaver won a corner on the right. Taken by Osborne it was met by an unmarked header from Taylor at the near post which made it 2-0 before the tenth minute had elapsed.

Newcastle then gained a corner themsleves which came to nothing and, after which, Osborne came off and was replaced by Regan Griffiths (14 mins). The surprise was that the other three starters from Saturday all remained on the pitch.

After Weaver had been lectured for an off the ball push at a throw-in, Alty forced a save when the keeper diverted a low shot round his post on the Alty right.

Altrincham looked comfortably in control at this stage but were pegged back by a suoerbly struck goal out of the blue, hit by Kuol from 25 yards, which gave Lainton no chance (19 mins).

The goal prompted an improvement in the Newcastle performance as the game went into its second quarter, with the Toon gaining another corner (23 mins).

But Alty threatened again when a Kosylo hoof led to Nuttall getting clear but, when he went down under a challenge, penalty appeals were denied (24 mins).

Next, Turner-Cooke got past Pasiek and went down as Lainton dived at his feet. Only after a delay, presumably to consult his assistant, Mr Davis signalled a penalty which Turner-Cooke himself converted comfortably to make it 2-2 (29 mins).

Alty still enjoyed plenty of the ball before Kosylo won possession well and, from a Taylor shot, a corner was gained on the right, to be take by Griffiths as the midfielder took over Osborne's dead-ball duties (38 mins). Another corner came and went (41 mins) before a Joe Nuttall shot was deflected, but well saved, to complete a trio of corners before the interval (44 mins). The half ended, after two added minutes, with Weaver's shot over the bar.

For the second half, Lewis Banks, who has played the second-most number of league minutes this season, was denied a rest and brought on to replace Golden at right-back. Also introduced for the second half were Justin Amaluzor, in place of Weaver, and goalkeeper Harvey Randle for Rob Lainton. Newcastle made one change, too, with Finneran replacing Bailey.

There had been a heavy shower over the interval and rain continued as play got under way with the visitors initially on the front foot.

Taylor was booked for a foul (51 mins) as play continued with no real chances at either end.

But, then, a collision on the left of Alty's defence between Pasiek and Cooper set Kuol free. He advanced and shot past the exposed Randle into the far side of the net from right of centre. So Alty were now trailing 2-3 (58 mins).

Randle was called dinto action a few minutes later, his save, after Kuol's advance, conceding a corner (62 mins). A trip on Banks then earned Finneran a yellow card (63 mins).

On 73 minutes Altrincham brought on Remi Thompson in place of Bickerstaff (73 mins) and, a few minutes later, Harrison replaced Emmerson for the visitors (76 mins).

Despite this bizarre disappointment, Altrincham maintained pressure on the visitors and, following a melee after an Alty freekick, they gained a corner (81 mins). As one-way traffic continued another corner was won by Amaluzor (83 mins) After this keepr Taylor sat downfor treatment and, in what was obvuously a choreographed move, all ten outfield playsers ran to the technical area for a tactical talk (84 mins). Unsurprisngly, the keeper's "injury" cleared up but, as always happens in such situations, the referee allowed the ten players to trot back to their positions before allowing play to resume.

When Newcastle gained some respite with a corner of their own, Phil Parkinson shouted to his players to retain three men upfield for a counter-attack. An Alty corner did soon follow (89 mins), following which Reddin got forward on the left and his cross to the back post was headed home by Amaluzor to make it 3-3 (90 mins).

Five added minutes saw Ferreira replace Kuol (90+1 mins) before Alty created a great chance to win the game. A cross from the right located Thompson but he was only able to steer the ball over the bar (90+3 mins).

As Alty pressed for a winner, another corner came and went before the last shot of the game saw Reddin wildly fire wide in the 95th minute. So penalties would decide the outcome.

After the debacle with Nuttall's penalty, it was wisely decided that the shoot out would be taken at the away end which had been unpopulated during the game itself.

1. Regan GRIFFITHS had his kick saved by the keeper, diving to his left 0-0
2. Alfie HARRISON sent Randle the wrong way 0-1
3. Kahrel REDDIN squeezed his kick in as the keeper got a hand to it, diving low to his right 1-1
4. Ellis STANTON hit his kick over the bar 1-1
5. Jake COOPER struck his spot-kick miles over the bar 1-1
6. Jay TURNER-COOKE blasted his shot into the net to give the visitors the lead 1-2
7. Matty KOSYLO Levelled the score 2-2
8. Sean NEAVE's kick was saved by Randle to his left 2-2
9. Justin AMALUZOR chipped his kick into the centre of the net to put Alty ahead for the first time. 3-2
10. For the third time a player aimed too high as Leo SHAHAR, on a night when reportedly seven planets were visible, sent his kick into orbit leaving Alty the victors. 3-2

So, Altrincham progressed to the semi-final stage after an incident-packed evening.