A tired-looking and injury-weakened Altrincham slumped to a fourth league defeat in five, against an Aldershot side which deserved the points.

With Regan Linney suspended, and many players ruled out by injury, it was far from the strongest Alty side which was second-best in a goalless first half.

The Shots took a 65th minute lead when Lainton could only parry Frost's shot from the left and Hargreaves was on hand to convert the loose ball.

Alty again laboured after the interval but out of nothing Alex Newby fired in a superb shot from the left to level the score (74 mins).

But then substitute Mullins's floaed cross cum shot sailed over Lainton before dropping into the far corner of his net to seal the points (88 mins).

SCORERS:

• 65 mins: Cameron HARGREAVES (ALTRINCHAM 0 Aldershot Town 1)
• 74 mins: Alex NEWBY (ALTRINCHAM 1 Aldershot Town 1)
• 88 mins: Max MULLINS (ALTRINCHAM 1 Aldershot Town 2)

Despite Linney being suspended, Tylor Golden not being involved, presumably through injury, and Joe Nuttall, Ollie Crankshaw, Ethan Ross, Eddy Jones and James Jones all being known to be sidelined through injury, Alty nevertheless also rested Lewis Baines and Tom Crawford, naming both on the bench.

Consequently five of their starting eleven had previously started just eight or fewer league games this season. In short, this was a far from first-choice Altrincham team.

The good news was that Charlie Olson was fit to start after his four-match league absence through injury. Osborne was named as captain.

In midweek The Shots had made numerous changes to face Leeds United U21s in the National League Cup. Today they restored many of those rested players, and compared with their last league game against Gateshead, they made just one change as Anderson started in place of Widdrington

ALTRINCHAM (Red and white striped shirts, black shorts and white socks): 26. Rob LAINTON, 2. Lewis BANKS, 5. Jake COOPER, 31. Charlie OLSON, 32. Kacper PASIEK, 8. Isaac MARRIOTT, 6. Elliot OSBORNE (c), 10. Alex NEWBY, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF Subs: 4. Lewis BAINES, 14. Matty KOSYLO, 15. Regan GRIFFITHS, 19. George WILSON, 17. Luke WEAVER, 21. Caleb ANSEN (gk), 22. Tom CRAWFORD

ALDERSHOT TOWN (All yellow) 28. Marcus Dewhurst, 36. Will Armitage, 35. Dan Ellison, 33. Luca Woodhouse, 17 Aaron Jones (c), 7. Cameron Hargreaves, 12. Keane Anderson, 8. Tyler Frost, 22. Jack Barham, 11. Ryan Jones, 10. Josh Barnett. Subs: 4. Luke Jenkins, 9. Kai Corbett, 24. Maxwell Mullins, 32. Emmanual Maja, 1. Jordi van Stappershoef (gk), 14. Ollie Bray, 27. James Henry

Altrincham were in poor form, having lost three of their four previous league games. They had also exited the FA Trophy in that spell.

In contrast, the Shots had won three and drawn one of their last four league games, though all four games had been at home.

REPORT:

The sides changed ends before kick-off so there was the relatively rare sight of Altrincham kicking off towards Golf Road, on a bright afternoon at the J. Davidson Stadium.

There was little to excite the spectators in the opening stages before Reddin won a corner on the left (8 mins). From this, a downward header by Cooper was cleared off the line by a defender. The Shots counter-attacked with a ball from the left travelling across the Altrincham goalmouth unconverted (9 mins).

The burly Barrett was soon proving to be the Shots' playmaker and it was he who fed Ryan Jones and it took a fine tackle from Marriott to halt him (10 mins).

Indeed it was Barrett again who prompted a repeat of the earlier action as Jones again laid the ball across the face of Altrincham's goal, and again it went unconverted (17 mins).

The visitors were now shading the possession statistics as they belied their lowly league standing.

But Keane's sliced shot, straight at Lainton, was the nearest to a goal from either side, as the game reached the midway point of the first half (22 mins).

There was little to enthuse the crowd in terms of fluent moves or goalmouth action with another effort from Anderson now clearing the bar (23 mins).

Things improved a little as Reddin won the ball and fed Newby who drifted towards the centre from the left to make space for a well struck shot from 18 yards which was deflected narrowly wide for a corner on the Altrincham left (26 mins).

When Reddin caught Armitage in a 50-50 challenge, the Altrincham winger was a little unlucky to be booked (30 mins).

Aldershot then created four decent openings in as many minutes.

Firstly, Ryan Jones and Barrett combined to win a corner. From this the ball came out to Frost, whose 25-yarder forced a low save from Lainton which went off him for a corner.

The next opportunity followed the corner as Barham miskicked a great chance from eight yards out, or so (33 mins).

Moments later an Anderson shot from more than 25 yards forced Lainton to beat the effort away (33 mins).

The pressure on Alty continued as Cooper and Osborne got in a mix-up on the front edge of the box and a resulting Aldershot effort narrowly cleared the bar.

In reponse a Bickerstaff cross from the right was just cut out with Reddin, unmarked, ready to pounce in the centre of the goalmouth. Soon afterwards, Pasiek fired miles over the bar from 18 yards (37 mins).

There was controversy in the 42nd minute as Aaron Jones's elbow clearly caught Olson's head, eliciting calls from the crowd for a red card. The referee consulted his assistant, who was close to the incident, but the only action he took was to lecture the offender.

A rare Altrincham chance arose before the interval as Amaluzor got into the box, right of goal, but his weak effort came to nothing (44 mins). Amaluzor also won a corner in the one added minute which had been declared but Cooper headed this wide.

So, a disappointing first half, in which the visitors had posed the greater threat, came to a goalless end.

Aldershot continued in the ascendancy as the second half got under way, winning two corners in the first five minutes (50 min).

When Bickerstaff was tripped, Ellison was shown a yellow card, after which Newby fed Reddin who earned a corner for Alty (54 mins).

By the hour mark, the visitors had been the better side whilst the hosts had barely threatened their opponents' goal.

To try and improve things, Alty brought on the rested duo of Crawford and Baines, who replaced Reddin and Olson (61 mins).

After Osborne had seen a shot blocked at source on the fringes of the Aldershot penalty area, the visitors went up the other end, with Frost getting into the box, left of goal. His shot was saved but not held by Lainton, allowing Hargreaves to convert the loose ball to put Aldershot ahead (65 mins).

After an Aldershot corner had been and gone, Barrett got into the box and went down but the referee booked him, presumably for simulation (69 mins).

Altrincham now made a second double-change with Weaver replacing Amaluzor and Wilson displacing Marriott (70 min).

Soon afterwards, out of the blue, Altrincham equalised when some individual skill from Newby got him to the left bye-line from where he fired a rasping and rising shot into the far side of the net. So it was 1-1 (74 mins).

Aldershot's instant response was to bring on Mullins for Barham.

Buoyed by their goal altrincham had a decent spell of forward monentum but Wilson's shot over the bar from 20 yards was the nearest to a goal threat before the Shots made a double change. Henry and Maja replaced Ryan Jones and Anderson (84 mins).

As a draw looked a likely outcome, Mullins got into the box, left of goal. His floated cross-cum-shot went over Lainton before dropping behind him into the far corner of the net to restore Aldershot's lead (88 mins).

Bray replaced Barrett (90 mins) before four added minutes were decreed. In that time, Banks fired narrowly over from 18 yards before a wild effort from Crawford signalled Alty's last chance (90+5 mins).

So Alty had fallen to a fourth league defeat in five National League outings (in games 32 to 36) as their play-off quest suffered another blow. Last season they lost five games in a row in fixtures 31-35 yet still managed to qualify but it remains to be seen if their tired and depleted squad can emulate that achievement this year.