A late goal for Altrincham secured a second successive 1-0 win to ease their relegation concerns and meant that seven points had been earned in the three league fixtures played since Neil Gibson was appointed.

Truro had the better of the first quarter of the match but towards the end of the half Altrincham improved. However, the interval score remained goalless.

Altrincham had the better of the opening stages of the second half and should have scored when Reddin shot at keeper Lavercombe (57 mins).

But there was litle quality in the game until substitute Ward curled a left-footed shot into the net to give the visitors the lead (81 mins).

Truro applied some late pressure but could not find a leveller.

SCORERS:

• 81 mins: Keaton WARD (Truro City 0 ALTRINCHAM 1)

REFEREE: Ms Emily Heaslip

ATTENDANCE: 3,184 (146 in away section)

TEAM NEWS:

Altrincham were unchanged from their midwek win over Boston United.

For Truro, Sanders, Pyke and Law came in. On their bench Harvey and Love-Holmes came in but Donnellan was suspended after his midweek red card.

LINE-UPS:

TRURO CITY (Red & black striped shirts, black shorts and red socks): 1. Dan Lavercombe, 20. Ryan Law, 12. Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, 3. Connor Riley-Lowe (c), 2. Zac Bell, 6. Sam Sanders, 19. Rekeil Pyke, 14. Lirak Hasani, 8. Dan Rooney, 4. Will Dean, 11. Dominic Johnson-Fisher. Subs: 9 Tyler Harvey, 15. Luke Jephcott, 16. Tylor Love-Holmes, 27. Salkou Janneh, 21. Max Kinsey, 24. Aidan Stone, 29. Harry Kite.

ALTRINCHAM (Yellow shirts and shorts with black socks): ALTRINCHAM - 30. Luke Hutchinson, 34. Dan Sassi, 4. Lewis Baines (c), 5. Jake Cooper, 23. Tylor Golden, 6. Elliot Osborne, 22. Tom Crawford, 40. Charlie Kirk, 14. Matty Kosylo, 20. Kahrel Reddin, 9. James Gale. Subs: 8 Isaac Marriott, 7. Olly Crankshaw, 10. Keaton Ward, 11. Jimmy Knowles, 21. Jack Hinchy, 27. Louie Fallon (gk)

This was a 644-mile return trip for Altrincham, the longest in the club's history for a competitive game, and their first visit to Cornwall.

Alty were obliged to devise a new one-off yellow shirt to avoid a clash of colours with Trirp's red and black attire. Apparently a similar problem had been narrowly averted when Alty played Morecambe earlier this season.

REPORT:

After a minute's silence and the playing of The Last Post in deference to the approaching Remembrance Day, the game got under way in front of a capacity crowd who were witnessing Altrincham's first ever competitive game in Cornwall.

Gale was looking lively for the visitors in the opening stages and he won an early corner off Sanders (5 mins). But it was Alty's Hutchinson who was the first keeper to be in meaningful action as he tipped over Pyke's effort from a Riley-Lowe cross (9 mins).

When the referee, Emily Heaslip chose to ignore a foul on Golden, Johnson-Fisher got in a shot but it went well wide from the edge of the box (15 mins).

Truro continued to set the pace as Johnson-Fisher's threat was halted by Golden and then Truro won a freekick midway through the half (23 mins).

However, as the game went into its second quarter, Altrincham began to get more forward momentum and that produced a corner (29 mins). Gale had the ball in the net from this corner, taken by Kirk, but the goal was ruled out, not entirely convincingly, for a supposed foul on Lavercombe, the former Torquay keeper.

Another Alty corner was won in the 38th minute, off Oxlade-Chamberlain, which came to nothing before Hutchinson sat down to facilitate a touchline conflab for both teams with their management (38 mins).

Soon afterwards Kirk's freekick gained another corner for the Robins. Taken by Osborne, at the back post Crawford headed the ball over the bar (40 mins).

Alty continued to have the better of things as half-time approached but without seriously threatening to score. They did win a fourth corner of the half inside the three added minutes but, as so often this season, the flag-kick did not threaten the opposition goal.

Half-time was reached with Alty still not having conceded a league goal in two and a half league games under interim manager Neil Gibson's newly introdcued back-three formation.

The second half started as the first had finished with the visitors on the front foot. Indeed, an early mistake by Lavercombe should have been punished by Reddin but his underpowered effort was cleared by a defender (46 mins).

The next five minutes brought about three Altrincham freekicks but still no real likelihood of a goal, despite their midweek training session on such situations (51 mins). An Alty corner soon followed but, again, it came to nothing (56 mins).

Truro's fall-off in performance after their promising first twenty minutes of the game, prompted a first change from John Askey as Jephcott replaced Johnson-Fisher (56 mins).

After Crawford and Kosylo had combined, Reddin now got in a shot but it was disappointingly struck straight at Lavercombe (57 mins). A game of high quality this was not.

No stranger to a yellow-card (or a red for that matter), Kosylo picked up a caution after a spat with Oxlade-Chanberlain, who also saw yellow (60 mins).

Neil Gibson made a change shortly afterwards as Gale was replaced by Knowles (61 mins). Another Reddin shot then produced a corner from a defensive block, but Osborne's flag-kick was easily caught by Lavercombe (63 mins).

Alty retained the forward momentum when a fine ball from Osborne was headed narrowly wide by Golden (65 mins).

A Truro change saw Janneh replace Pyke (68 mins) and, after Alty had won another freekick, the visitors made a double swap with Ward and Crankshaw replacing Kosylo and Kirk (72 mins).

Shortly after the matchball had had to be replaced by the referee, Crankshaw won his side a corner (76 mins) which, taken short, came to nothing like its predecessors in this match.

Next, Truro's Harvey received generous applause as he returned to action from the bench in place of Hasani (79 mins) but, within two minutes, he had witnessed Altrincham taking the lead.

After Crankshaw had drifted inside from the left, the ball came back ut of the box and reached Ward who curled an impressive left-footed shot from twenty yards into the net to make it 1-0 to the visitors (81 mins).

Play resumed after protracted celebrations by the Robins and Ward was soon to go close again with an effort which went narrowly wide (84 mins).

Three minutes later Marriott came on for Reddin (87 mins) ahead of a declaration of six added minutes by Ms Heaslip. Truro applied some pressure in this period but Altrincham went on to record their third successive league clean sheet and secure the points.

Interim boss Gibson has now taken seven points from three games as well as that trio of clean sheets from a side which had failed to record a single shutout in its previous eight league outings. Those seven points are exactly the gap that now lies between Altrincham and the relegation places.

Results went for Altrincham in several other fixtures, allowing the Robins to rise four places to fifteenth.