Having lost their five previous fixtures this season and having never won at Grosvenor Vale, Altrincham secured their first draw of the season this time around to arrest their decline. They had to recover from a disastrous start to the match, conceding after just five minutes. Georgiou's freekick was met by McEvoy who headed over Hutchinson to score just under the crossbar.

It could easily have got worse as Olomola and Woodman both failed to convert decent openings inside the first fifteen minutes.

Altrincham found an equaliser in the second added minute before the interval when Crawford fed Knowles whose shot was parried to Gale, who netted from close range. So Alty reached half-time level despite being second best for much of the half.

The second half was a generally low quality affair, littered with errors. Wealdstone played the last five minutes of added time with ten men after substitute Adarkwa pulled his hamstring.

SCORERS:

• 5 mins: Connor McAVOY (Wealdstone 1 ALTRINCHAM 0)
• 45 (+2) mins: James GALE (Wealdstone 1 ALTRINCHAM 1)

REFEREE: Mr Matthew Scholes

ATTENDANCE: 1,217

TEAM NEWS:

For the past two games Altrincham had been without defender Golden (suspended), winger Reddin (suspended), centre-back Barnes (concussion) and winger Crankshaw (personal reasons), whilst two other centre-backs, Sass-Davies and Cooper, had also remained unfit to start a game this season.

Today, Tylor Golden, unexpectedly returned from suspension having served just two, not three games as believed, and new loanee Jack Hinchy came into the starting eleven, the duo replacing Kirk and Osborne who both moved to the bench.

Alty's other new loanee, Billy Waters, was named on the bench where Olly Crankshaw returned after becoming a father last week. Sam Barnes returned to the bench after serving his concussion recovery period as German, Weaver and Kosylo dropped out.

LINE-UPS:

WEALDSTONE (Blue shirts, white shorts and socks): 1. Dante Baptiste, 3. Anthony Georgiou, 5. Deon Woodman, 7. Enzio Boldewijn, 8. Dylan Kadji, 9. Olufela Olomola, 14. Micah Obiero, 15. Philip Chinedu, 20. Nathan Tshikuna, 22. Connor McAvoy, 29. Junior Tiensia. Subs: 2. Jack Cook, 4. Omar Mussa, 11. Sak Hassan, 17. Dom Hutchinson, 27. Sean Adarkwa, 28. Lucas Covolan (gk), 24. Nathan Young-Coombes

ALTRINCHAM (Black shirts with yellow diagonals, yellow shorts and black socks): 30 Luke Hutchinson, 2. Lewis Banks, 34. Dan Sassi, 4. Lewis Baines, 3. Sam Reed, 23. Tylor Golden 22. Tom Crawford, 21. Jack Hinchy, 8 Isaac Marriott, 11. Jimmy Knowles, 9. James Gale. Subs: 6. Elliot Osborne, 7. Olly Crankshaw, 10. Keaton Ward, 24. Sam Barnes, 27. Louie Fallon, 29. Billy Waters, 40. Charlie Kirk.

Wealdstone, like Altrincham, were original members of the first national non-League division, the Alliance Premier League (APL), founded in 1979.

They share with Altrincham the distinction of being the only two clubs in the current Enterprise National League who were both founder-members of the APL and have never tasted Football League status.

Before this game, Altrincham had lost their last five matches which had seen them drop to 20th place, eight places below their hosts.

With nine defeats since the start of the season, Altrincham had suffered the most defeats for the club in their first 13 fixtures from the start of any season since at least before national non-League football status was introduced in 1979.

REPORT:

On a windy day in north-west London, the hosts kicked off. However, Altrincham had the first shot at goal... if Knowles's hoof into the car park from a freekick warrants such a description.

However, inside five minutes, Altrincham had fallen behind. Georgiou's freekick, into the wind, found the head of the incoming McEvoy. His effort looked as if it might clear the bar but the wind held it up and it dipped over Hutchinson and just under the bar on its trajectory into the net.

Alty's fragile confidence after a run of five successive defeats led to a torrid ten minutes in which their poor defending and more composure from the hosts could have put Wealdstone three up.

Firstly, from a cross, Olomola got into a threatening position from a freekick but Reed saved the day with a smart bit of covering (7 mins).

Next, following a long throw, Woodman fed Obiero whose shot flew narrowly wide (15 mins).

At this stage Wealdstone's generally crisp passing was better suited to the windy conditions than Altrincham's various attempts to play longer, aerial balls.

Midway through the half, Altrincham began to compose themselves without seriously threatening to score though Golden did win them a corner.

Nevertheless Altrincham remained suspect at the back as a Bodewijn cross threatened their goal.

There was a stoppage soon aftewards when Gale was clattered into an advertising hoarding and needed treatment before resuming (36 mins).

Alty conceded a corner (39 mins) before four added minutes were proclaimed. Hinchy was relieved in the first of those when he gave the ball away only for Olomola's control to let him down.

With the interval approaching Altrincham somewhat surprisingly equalised.

Crawford, arguably the visitors' best player, from the "D" fed Knowles. His decent low shot was only parried by Baptiste in the direction of Gale who had to perform little more than a tap-in to complete the task of scoring (45+2 mins).

So there was parity at the interval which did not reflect the imbalance between the sides in the first half.

The second half started with Wealdstone making two unforcd errors, which became something of a pattern in the rest of the match.

Knowles now got himself booked for a foul on Chinedu (53 mins) but the nearest to a threat from Alty at this point was Gale's shot straight at Baptiste (55 mins).

Three errors in as many minutes before the hour mark epitomised the home side's loss of the grip on the game that they had held in spells of the first half.

Wealdstone now made a double change with Hutchinson and Adarkwa coming on for Olomola and McAvoy (61 mins).

The changes did seem to have a positive effect as Georgiou soon had a shot blocked by Banks and Boldewijn fired wildly off target.

Next, Mussa replaced Kadji (66 mins). Alty's best effort at this stage was a Marriott shot straight at Baptiste (69 mins).

Phil Parkinson now devised a triple change with Osborne, debutant Waters and Barnes replaced Hinchy, Gale and Banks repectively (73 mins). Banks had suffered a knock just before his replacement.

No sooner had Waters come on than he went down under a challenge in the box and picked up a yellow card for his complaints when a penalty was not awarded (74 mins).

Soon afterwards Obiero was cautioned for a high kick on Barnes )76 mins) as Altrincham now enjoyed a spell in the ascendancy.

But the overall standard of play was mediocre as play drifted towards its conclusion with neither side having the quality to impose itself.

Wealdstone completed their changes with two more substitutions as Young-Coombes and Hassan replaced Tshikuna and Chinedu in the 85th and 87th minute respectively.

Just after seven additional minutes had been announced, substitute Adarkwa appeared to pull his hamstring and his departure left the Stones to complete the game with ten men.

Far from Alty taking advantage of their one-man advantage it was Wealdstone who almost snatched the three points when Hutchinson's cross was only just cleared by Altrincham (90+7 mins).

After nine added minutes the final whistle blew as Alty halted their winless sequence by securing their first draw of the campaign in their fourteenth outing.

They remain twentieth in the league table with a lot of hard work still needed to restore their season to a more respectable status.