A poor performance from Altrincham against a makeshift Morecambe side, which included six starters who were not even at the club a week ago, saw The Shrimps snatch a very late winner in their opening fixture of the season.

It started badly for Altrincham with numerous mis-passes and errors and they fell behind in just the seventh minute. Tollitt was allowed to advance up the inside-left channel and, though his first effort was stopped by Hutchinson, the keeper failed to hold the ball and the Morecambe man poked home the rebound.

Altrincham improved in the latter half of the first period and equalised, albeit out of nothing, through Jimmy Knowles in the 34th minute. Following a throw-in Banks, making his 100th start for the club, got the ball to Knowles who drove a low shot into the far side of the net from right of centre.

As the second half wore on, it was interrupted by numerous stoppages for Morecambe "injuries". The match seemed to be there for Alty's taking in the second half against a tiring opponent.

By the final stages Alty were camped in the Morecambe half but without over-troubling goalkeeper Mair before drawing a fine block from him in the early stages of a decreed ten minutes of added time.

In the eighth of those minutes, Tollitt was allowed to advance from his own half before laying the ball off to his right, to substitute Ogwuru, who drove a low shot across Hutchinson towards the far corner of the net to put Morecambe 2-1 ahead.

A further four minutes were played but Altrincham were incapabale of finding an equaliser.

SCORERS:

• 7 mins: Ben TOLLITT (Morecambe 1 ALTRINCHAM 0)
• 34 mins: Jimmy KNOWLES (Morecambe 1 ALTRINCHAM 1)
• 90(+8) mins: Daniel OGWURU (Morecambe 2 ALTRINCHAM 1)

REFEREE: Mr Oliver Mackey

ATTENDANCE: 3.730 (246 in away section)

TEAM NEWS:

Centre-backs Baines, Cooper and Sass-Davies were once again out of action today, as was keeper Ross but Elliot Osborne was fit enough to join the bench.

Following two successive defeats, manager Parkinson made three changes as Ward, Knowles and Reddin started in place of Crankshaw, Gale and Weaver. The latter two were named on the bench, however Crnakshaw was not in the squad.

Morecambe's team, formation and tactics were all unknowns before kick-off, given that this was the first game of the season for the Shrimps and that, less than a week earlier, they had still not signed any players since the end of last season. Since then, virually all of their playing personnel had moved on.

Twelve new Morecambe signings had been announced by matchday lunchtime and five former players apparently remained at the club. Those five all started, alongside six new signings.

LINE-UPS:

MORECAMBE (Red shirts, white shorts, black socks): 1. Archie Mair, 2. Luke Hendrie, 3. Raheem Conte, 6. Ludwig Francillette, 7. Gwion Edwards, 9. Harrison Panayiotou, 10. Jake Cain, 15. Ben Williams, 17. Paul Lewis, 18. Ben Tollitt, 24. Yann Songo'o. Subs: 25. Alfie Scales, 19. Ma'kel Campbell, 23. Daniel Ogwuru, 26. Lennon Dobson, 27. Adam Fairclough.

ALTRINCHAM (Black and yellow diagonal striped, black shorts, yellow socks): 30 Luke Hutchinson, 2 Lewis Banks (c), 34. Dan Sassi, 24. Sam Barnes, 23 Tylor Golden, 8 Isaac Marriott, 22. Tom Crawford, 11. Jimmy Knowles, 20 Kahrel Reddin, 40 Charlie Kirk, 10 Keaton Ward. Subs: 3 Sam Reed, 14 Matty Kosylo, 16 Remi Raymond, 9 James Gale, 6. Elliot Osborne, 17. Lucas Weaver, 27 Louie Fallon.

Following relegation from EFL2 Morecambe had been in turmoil given their previous owner Jason Whittingham's reluctance to complete a deal with prospective new owners the Panjab Warriors. A transfer ban, as well as closure of the stadium as it was uninisured, were just two of the problems, along with player recruitment after a transfer ban, which the Warriors needed to resolve in a matter of days before this fixture.

As well as appointing a new manager and his staff, ten of their twelve new signings were eligible for this match. A few of them had played previously against Altrincham for other clubs but many were unfamiliar faces drawn from both home and abroad.

REPORT:

Jimmy Knowles kicked off the game for Altrincham in front of a sizeable gate, most of whom had come to celebrate the home club's dramatic last-gasp rescue from an impending collapse threatened by the previous owner's delayed transfer of ownership.

It was Knowles who also landed the first Altrincham shot on goal, albeit it proved an easy save for keeper Mair (5 mins). After Barnes had lost possession, Alty then allowed Tollitt to advance unchecked up the inside-left channel. His shot at goal was not the most powerful and keeper Hutchinson stopped it but he failed to hold the ball, which fell conveniently for Tollitt to poke home from close range (7 mins).

It was a bad start for the Robins and it got little better in the aftermath. First, Crawford earned a lecture for a foul (9 mins) and, after miscontrol by Marriott, the midfielder lunged into a tackle and was booked (12 mins), a fate avoided moments later when Cain kicked the ball away.

Egged on by their supporters, Morecambe continued to set the agenda as Alty continued to lose the ball cheaply, Ward and Kirk each committing such lapses inside a minute or so (15 mins). Poor, misdirected passes by Kirk, again, and then Reddin soon followed as Altrincham remained second best to their makeshift team of opponents. The woeful passing continued as Golden passed to opposing player Francillette (21 mins).

It was not until midway through the half that Alty again tested Mair when Jimmy Knowles's effort was saved at the second attempt by the home keeper (22 mins).

Morecambe's Edwards was then booked for blocking an Altrincham freekick. But the Robins' lamentable passing continued with a quite extraordinary twenty-yard backwards pass by Ward which went straight to Panayiotou, setting the striker up for a shot. Fortunately for Alty, his shot was even worse than the back-pass and the ball sailed miles over the bar (26 mins).

Kirk's unhappy afternoon continued as he got himself unnecessarily booked for kicking the ball away (28 mins).

Around the half-hour mark, Altrincham began to get a little more control of the game without causing any undue alarm to Morecambe, a Ward header nodded to Mair's arms being the most threatening effort at this stage (30 mins).

Shortly after Reddin had lost the ball, he did better and managed to get into the box, right of goal, from where he forced a save by Mair (34 mins). And soon afterwards Altrincham equalised following a throw-in on their right. From Banks the ball set Knowles free in the inside-right channel and he calmly advanced to hit a low shot cross Mair towards the far side of the net to level the score at 1-1 (34 mins).

Alty were now getting on top and, following a Kirk cross, a defensive mix-up gave Altrincham a corner on the right but nothing came of it (40 mins). Morecambe's Williams now got himslef booked for a foul (44 mins) before Crawford's freekick led to a smart turn by Reddin before he shot over the bar (45 mins).

Two added minutes left the interval score at one apiece. Given Altrincham's slow improvement, their supporters might reasonably have expected them to go on and impose themselves in the second half against the untried assemblage of players facing them.

The second half started with a pass into touch by Sassi but the visitors soon won a corner through Reddin (47 mins). Optimism increased as Kirk closed down Mair and got the ball but was unabe to capitalise, from left of goal, though a corner resulted (51 mins).

Morecambe responded as Tollitt won a corner. From Cain's corner a fine volley by Edwards was importantly blocked by Ward (53 mins).

With Altrincham failing to impose themselves on the hosts, play was now interrupted three times in seven minutes by protracted stoppages for apparent cramp injuries to Morecambe players.

Just before the third of these stoppages Reddin did well and fed Kirk from the right but, from a central position, the winger sidefooted the cross badly miles over the bar (66 mins).

A further stoppage saw Alty make a double swap of Gale and Osborne for Kirk and Marriott (67 mins), followed by the Shrimps' replacement of Williams by Campbell (68 mins).

The thought that Morecambe would fade and tire given their team's hasty coming together in the preceding days, and that Alty would dominate the second half, proved to be wishful thinking. Morecambe tired but Altrincham were not dominant at this stage of the afternoon.

Indeed, it was Morecambe who won the next corner (72 mins) and when they prompted the fourth injury stoppage of the half, there were boos from the Altrincham supporters who, with some justification, sensed gamesmanship was a factor (75 mins). That impression was increased when the home players decamped to the technical area for a pep talk.

Alty now brought on Kosylo for Ward (75 mins) and another stoppage soon occurred when Conte was replaced by Ogwuru (77 mins).

At last, Altrincham began to dominate the forward momentum of the game, with Kosylo hitting a low shot, narrowly wide (79 mins). Next, Crawford laid a ball across the goalmouth but the ball went unconverted (81 mins).

A booking for Cain's foul on Reddin underlined that the hosts were on the backfoot (84 mins). The rsulting freekick, from just outside the right-hand front corner of the box, was overhit by Osborne as Alty strugged to trouble goalkeeper Hair (85 mins).

At last they did so when Osborne drive forced a diving save from the home keeper (87 mins). After this the home captain stayed down in the box. The Morecambe bench was then clearly heard to tell keeper Mair to go down as well, which he did, claiming a hand injury which was clearly spurious. This allowed the stoppage to continue without a trainer being called on for the injured Songo'o as a team-mate stretched his cramped leg for him and without his having to go off for thirty seconds afterwards.

The timewasting continued as Mair was booked for dallying (90 mins) and ten minutes were computed for the added time.

Altrincham went close to breaking the deadlock in the second added minute with three successive shots at goal; Mair making an important block in the midst of thie onslaught.

Next Knowles shot just wide (90+4 mins) before Osborne had a shot blocked as the game had become one-way traffic but Altrincham could not find a way through the defence.

Eight minutes into the added time, Tollitt emerged from his own half in the inside-right channel. With Ogwuru overlapping to his right, the ball was played to him and he drove a low shot across Hutchinson into the far side of the net to his right (90+8 mins). So, it was 2-1.

After Reddin had been booked (90+9 mins), Mr Mackey went on to play a further three minutes but Altrincham could not respond and they sank to a hugely disappointing defeat against their makeshift team of opponents. Other results later in the day left Altrincham nineteenth in the league after three successive defeats in their four outings this season.

A short turnaround is on the cards with Solihull Moors due at the JDS in forty-eight hours' time. The Moors will themselves arrive after defeat, smarting from a 1-5 home defeat by Aldershot Town who are, ironically, the only team beaten by Alty this season.