Despite an improved second-half performance from Altrincham, they were unable to come back from a two-goal deficit from the first-half and conceded for a third time in the 75th minute.

Earlier, they had fallen behind in the 17th minute when an aerial cross from the right was nodded down at the back post for Pritchard to score from close range. It became 2-0 in the 35th minute when a curling effort from Mc Bride looped into the net.

Altrincham started the second half well and had won half a dozen corners by the 68th minute. Rochdale then made a triple substitution and, within minutes, they scored a well-worked goal with a move up the right flank finished off by Smith (75 mins).

SCORERS:

• 17 mins: Connor McBRIDE (ALTRINCHAM 0 Rochdale 1)
• 34 mins: Joe PRITCHARD (ALTRINCHAM 0 Rochdale 2)
• 75 mins: Tyler SMITH (ALTRINCHAM 0 Rochdale 3)

REFEREE: Mr Peter Wright

ATTENDANCE: 3,332 (1,056 in away section)

TEAM NEWS:

After Altrincham's collapse at Telford which had justifiably incurred the chairman's displeasure, Neil Gibson made two changes to the starting eleven. Eddy Jones came in for his first league start since November 2024, following an ACL injury, and Matty Kosylo also started tonight.

Jake Cooper and Keaton Ward moved to the bench, where Kahrel Reddin and a recalled Owen German replaced an injured Osborne and Mikey Stone.

Rochdale made three changes. Allarakhia was away on AFCON international duty, Beckwith was injured and leading scorer Dieseruvwe was also missing. In came Henderson, Waller and Pritchard to replace them. On the bench in came Tutonda, Rodney and Smith.

LINE-UP:

ALTRINCHAM (Red shirts with white pinstripes, black shorts and white socks): 30. Luke Hutchinson, 23. Tylor Golden, 34. Dan Sassi, 4. Lewis Baines (c), 33. Eddy Jones, 22. Tom Crawford, 8. Isaac Marriott, 14. Matty Kosylo, 7. Olly Crankshaw, 17. Lucas Weaver, 11. Jimmy Knowles. Subs: 5. Jake Cooper, 9. James Gale, 10. Keaton Ward, 20. Kahel Reddin, 18. Owen German, 40. Charlie Kirk, 41. Max Beddow (gk)

ROCHDALE (All blue) : 25. Nathan Broome, 6. Ethan Ebanks-Landell (c), 2. Kyron Gordon, 35. Charlie Waller, 37. Ryan Galvin, 8. Harvey Gilmour, 4. Ryan East, 40. Ian Henderson, 14. Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, 17. Joe Pritchard, 21. Connor McBride. Subs: 12. Levi Amantchi, 19. Jake Burger, 22. Dan Moss, 16. Casey Pettit, 3. David Tutonda, 10. Devante Rodney, 38. Tyler Smith.

Last week both teams had been involved in disappointment in the FA Trophy; the Dale's match at home to Southend had had to be abandoned due to waterlogging whereas Alty had suffered a late collapse at Telford.

This match had been moved at the behest of DAZN from Saturday afternoon to this Friday night kick-off, one of seven changes to kick-off arangements affecting Altrincham this season to be announced so far.

Rochdale went into this game as league leaders with two or three games in hand on their rivals, whilst Altrincham lay 15th and faced testing league fixtures against all of the current top five clubs over the following six weeks.

However, Altrincham had won all three previous league matches at home under Neil Gibson.

REPORT:

Altrincham kicked off towards the full away end of the stadium but, inside three minutes, it was the hosts who had been cut open twice by the impressive visitors' greater incision. First Ebanks-Landell set a team-mate free for a shot which Hutchinsion had to save (2 mins) before a long ball forward again allowed Dale to threaten.

The visitors continued to press with East's shot needing a decent save from Hutchinson (9 mins). Moments later loanee Waller was allowed to run fifty yards up the centre, getting past Golden, but the ball ran to the busy Hutchinson (10 mins).

Things were looking very ominous for Altrincham even at this early stage. They had deployed four men at the back with Golden moving to right-back whilst Eddy Jones, in his first start for more than a year, was at left-back. Sassi and Baines were the central defensive pairing.

Further forward than the midfield duo of Crawford and Marriott, four forwards were deployed by Altrincham. They comprised leading scorer Jimmy Knowles and three others previously deployed as wingers (Crankshaw, Weaver and Kosylo). However the quartet was unable to impose itself on the visitors' defence leaving East, in particular, frequently in midfield space to feed his attacking team-mates.

Finally, Alty got an attacking toehold as a Hutchinson punt upfield gained a corner on the Alty right (12 mins). Taken short, by Crankshaw to Kosylo, this corner came to nothing (13 mins).

Whilst Alty were not closing down the Rochdale backline in any systematic way when the visitors were in possession. In contrast Rochdale were effectively closing down Hutchinson making it difficult for him to feed his team-mates to initiate attacking momentum. It was not long before Rochdale gained possession and, from the right, a cross was nodded down at the back post for McBride to find the net from close range, the ball rising into the roof of the net as Crawford was unable to get to the ball first (17 mins).

Goalkeeper Broome then brazenly sat down feigning injury so that manager Jimmy McNulty could hold a tactical talk. The sooner that match officials are empowered to stop such touchline mass gatherings, the better.

Play was soon interrupted again as a change of matchball was needed (24 mins); the change did not alter the pattern of the game, with Hutchibson soon called into action to push away a shot from East after he again found himself in space some 25 yards from goal. East was to be the DAZN Player of the Match (31 mins).

Moments later Hutchinson was busy again, this time punching a ball away but, on this occasion, the Dale were deemed to have been offside

Dale's second goal soon arrived when a one-two near the right corner flag gave Gordon the space to cross from the bye-line to McBride who swivelled and curled a lobbed shot over the defence and Hutchinson to find the far side of the net (35 mins).

However, Altrincham now almost got back into the game in a bizarre way. Broome's attempt to kick upfield cannoned off the closing Plly Crankshaw and looped back towards Dale's goal but, sadly for Altrincham, the ball dropped safely before the embarrassed keeper regathered it (36 mins).

And things continued to frustrate Altrincham as Weaver went down under a very plausible claim for a penalty to the left of goal (39 mins).

However, the hosts were then grateful that a Rochdale incursion on their right was kept out despite a goalmouth scramble, a corner resulting (43 mins).

Altrincham had been very much second best and could not complain at the interval deficit.

Altrincham started the second half with a much better tempo, after the failed experiment of deploying four forwards in the first 45 minutes, winning two corners in the opening four minutes. But the hosts had not managed to breach the Dale defence before Neil Gibson made his first change, as Reddin replaced Weaver (57 mins).

It was another eight minutes before Altrincham landed a decent effort on goal; a 25-yarder well-struck by Marriott which Broome pushed over the bar for a corner (65 mins).

Crankshaw soon won another corner (67 mins) before an excellent cross from Eddy Jones was headed strongly at goal by Crawford only for the keeper to make an excellent point-blank save at the cost of another corner (68 mins). Once more a short corner was taken and once more nothing came of it. Alty were to win the match's corner count but they made little use of this advantage.

After another "sit-down" injury for the visitors, play stopped before they slowly made a triple substitution. Gilmour, Henderson and Pritchard slowly left the pitch with Pettit, Smith and Burger joining the match (71 mins).

Four minutes later a move up the Rochdale right saw McBride's back-heel take a fortunate deflection and fall for Adebayo-Rowling to put in a low cross which Smith smartly diverted across goal into the far corner to make it 0-3 (75 mins).

The stop-start nature of the game continued as Alty made a double change and the Dale made one further substiution. Moss replaced Waller for Rochdale whilst Gale and Ward replaced Alty's Jones and Knowles (78 mins).

Hutchinson now stopped another Rochdale shot but, as happened frequently, he did not hold the ball and a corner resulted (80 mins).

Alty did threten when a cross from the right located Gale but, from right of goal, he only managed to head the ball away from the target into the crowd (82 mins).

Hutcnhinson was soon in action again at the other end, punching the ball away after Pettit had got forward (84 mins). At this point, Rodney completed Rochdale's five changes, with McBride being taken off (84 mins).

Five added minutes were announced during which Tom Crawford was named as Alty's Man of the Match though, arguably Hutchinson was an equally viable candidate for he was certainly a busy man.

Despite the visitors lacking three of their regulars in Beckwith, Dieseruvwe and Allarakhia, Altrincham were unable to take advantage of their absence and, with fuxtures against four more of the top seven occuring between now and the end of January, the Robins will do well to avoid sinking down the table in that period.