A second home defeat in four days, once again to a team struggling against relegation, and a sixth defeat in seven matches in the league and FA Trophy has deflated the optimistic mood at Altrincham.

Facing a Wealdstone team, lying 21st and which had conceded eleven times in its previous three matches, Alty barely laid a glove on the Home Counties side.

The Robins were without the suspended Linney and the injured cohort of Ross, the two Joneses, Golden, Nuttall and Crankshaw but the eleven who started today (and the used substitutes) produced a disjointed, error-strewn performance.

Having landed just one decent shot on target in the first half, a well-struck effort from Newby which went straight at the keeper, the visitors took the lead just 75 seconds after the interval. Oldham loanee Reid was the scorer from a cross from the Wealdstone right.

Four corners in as many minutes for The Stones later in the second half underlined the poor performance from the hosts.

It was not until the last of the eight minutes of added time, that Alty looked like scoring when Kosylo's long-range effort came down off the underside of the crossbar.

And the next match? At home to runaway league leaders Barnet!

SCORERS:

• 47 mins: Alex REID (ALTRINCHAM 0 Wealdstone 1)

Altrincham made three changes as Baines, Crawford and Kosylo came in for Olson, Reddin and Marriott, who were all named on the bench.

Seven Altrincham first-teamers were missing; six injured (Ethan Ross, Eddy Jones, James Jones, Tylor Golden, Joe Nuttall and Ollie Crankshaw) and one suspended (Regan Linney).

For The Stones there were also three changes. Obiero dropped out and McAvoy and Mariappa moved to the bench. Into the starters came Dyer, Hutchinson and Walker, whilst Cesay returned on the subs' bench.

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

WEALDSTONE (Yellow shirts, blue shorts and socks) 31. Luca Gunter, 2. Jack Cook (c), 5. Alex Dyer, 7. Enzio Boldewijn, 10. Max Kretzschmar, 16. Will Randall-Hurren, 17. Dominic Hutchinson, 22. Alex Reid, 27. Joshua Grant, 29. Harrison Sohna, 34. Tyler Walker. Subs: 35. Dante-Astor Baptiste (gk), 3. Anthony Georgiou, 11. Mustapha Carayol, 19. Adrian Mariappa, 20. Sam Ashford, 21. Kalum Cesay, 24. Connor McAvoy.

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

Wealdstone arrived in 21st place but, following two successive 4-1 defeats, they had shown fight come back from three down on Saturday to secure a 3-3 home draw against Eastleigh.

REPORT:

For the second successive home game Altrincham were obliged to switch their customary preferred end and attack the home end in the first half.

As the home players prepared to kick off, an orchestrated show of firworks was let off, just outside the ground, near the former British Gas telecomms pylon. Sadly, there were to be few fireworks on the pitch in the subsequent match, but rather some damp squibs.

Nevertheless, the visitors started quite brightly and had the first attempt on goal as Randall fed Walker, whose shot from an acute angle left of goal, hit the side-netting (3 mins)

Alty repsonded as Kosylo won a corner but Osborne's delivery was poor (6 mins). Indeed, the game's overall quality was indifferent as both sides surrendered possession too easily.

As the midway point of the half was approaching, it was Altrincham who had grown to enjoy territorial advantage but the home side was defending in depth and belying their record of conceding eleven times in the previous 270 minutes of game-time.

However, there was now some panic on the Stones' box when a Pasiek ball was sliced towards his own top corner by a defender, prompting keeper Gunter to have to make a puuch away to his left. The ball subsequently came to Amaluzor, right of goal but he wasted the opening with a shot which went into orbit (22 mins).

There was then a stoppage as two Wealdstone men went down but it was Grant, alone of the two, who needed protracted treatment (25 mins).

Following the re-start, Banks and Kosylo conspired to set up Newby, in a central position twenty yards out. He struck his shot impressively but straight at keeper Gunter who beat the ball away, with a corner the outcome (27 mins).

A Cooper foul on Reid now gave the visitors freekick, some forty yards out. Sihna's freekick came to nothing but, soon afterwards, a Wealdstone header at the back-post represented a half-chance (34 mins).

Three minutes later a low cross from the right by Banks disappointingly found not a single Altrincham player in the goalmouth.

As the interval approached Kosylo won a home freekick but this came to nothing (43 mins).

Two minutes of added time saw Banks and Reid go for the ball with the Wealdstone man fractionally late and catching the Alty right-back. Banks went down theatrically as some in the crowd bayed for a red card but referee Dale was right to see it as a 50/50 contest and no card was shown (45+2 mins).

Just some seventy-five seconds or so after kicking off the second off, Wealdstone took the lead.

The visitors had advanced on the right and a cross from there by Hutchinson was headed into the net at the near post by Reid to stun the onlooking Golf Road end (47 mins). It was the Oldham loanee's third goal against Altrincham this season following his brace in the 3-3 draw at Grosvenor Vale.

Even the scoreboard operators were in denial about the goal as they did not update the electronic screen to record the Stones' goal for a good couple of minutes.

Matty Kosylo was one Alty player to be showing some fight and his superb ball forward with the outside of his right foot found Banks. He in turn fed Amaluzor, some twelve yards out but his disappointing performance continued as his effort ran weakly to the hands of Gunter.

And it was also Kosylo who, a little later, hit a superb shot from 25 yards that flew only narrowly wide (52 mins).

As in the first half, play now stopped for Grant to receive treatment and, after resuming briefly, he had to be replaced by Mariappa (55 mins).

Cooper was then penalised for a "foot-up" offence and was duly booked (56 mins). The resulting freekick was curled narrowly wide before a Wealdstone error allowed Amaluzor to earn a corner at the other end (58 mins).

Next, a Stones' freekick earned them a corner, with the home crowd now largely silenced by their team's below-par performance (60 mins).

On 64 minutes Hutchinson needed treatment and he was replaced by McAvoy (65 mins). At the same stoppage, Alty brought on Wilson and Reddin for the out of sorts Amaluzor and a tired looking Tom Crawford, who is Alty's only player to have exceeded 3,000 minutes of league action this season (66 mins).

After the restart Boldewijn hit a powerful shot at goal from outside the box which, fortunately, was in Lainton's direction and he was able to help it over the bar for a corner (67 mins). This was to become a sequence of four corners for Wealdsine in a five-minute spell whicn, at times, included moments when you could have heard a pin drop in the J. Davidson Stadium.

Between the third and fourth of the above corners, the visitors brought on 36 year-old Carayol for Randall-Huren (71 mins). It was 17 years and a week since Carayol had first been in an opposition squad at Moss Lane, when he was an unused sub for Crawley Town.

Wealdstone wound the clock down with another single substitution as Ashford replaced Walker (73 mins).

Next, Alty brought on Weaver for Bickerstaff with the wingman this time deployed as a striker (76 mins).

Nevertheless it was the visitors who looked as likely to score as Altrincham witnessed Lainton having to make a diving save (77 mins).

Yet again a Wealdstone man went down off the ball for treatment, their gamesmanship annoying the home support (81 mins).

On 85 minutes, Wealdstone made their fifth single substitution as Cesay replaced Kretzschmar (85 mins). Why the National League permits five stoppages per side for substitutions when higher leagues limit teams to three breaks in play to replace players is one fo life's mysteries but this latitude serves only to break up any rhythm in games.

The Stones timewasting earned Mariappa a yellow card at a delayed throw-in in the final minute of normal time before eight added minutes were decreed. The visitors' cause was aided by a Reddin foul on Sohna (90+2 mins), followed by a corner.

Reddin now did better, at the other end, to win his side a corner (90+4 mins) but, again, a needless foul gave the visitors respite, in this case Pasiek was the offender.

Newby had had a quiet game but a late run from him earned a late corner (90+7 mins). From this, Carayol was allowed to run 75 yards to the corner flag at the other end, to wind time down further.

In the eighth and final added minute Alty came their closest to snatching a point as Kosylo's superbly struck twenty-yarder from a central position smashed against the underside of the bar before being cleared.

So it was a fifth league defeat in six league outings for Altrincham whose push for the play offs, if not yet derailed, has currently run out of steam and has been shunted into a siding in recent weeks.

With remarkable symmetry this poor run of results mirrors almost exactly an identical sequence of five league defeats in six outings last season, which came in games 31 to 36 of the campaign. This time it has happened in games 32 to 37.

Defeat was all the more frustrating tonight for the failure to make ground on three of Alty's play-off rivals who also were defeated this evening.