Altrincham started this game dreadfully. Truro had no fewer than six good chances to take the lead inside the opening 17 minutes, four of which required good-to-excellent saves from Luke Hutchinson, another threat needed a brilliant tackle to save Alty and the sixth effort was fired disappointingly wide by the Truro player in question. Time and again Alty had allowed Truro players to advance unchallenged towards goal.

So it was completely against the run of play when Altrincham went ahead in the 28th minute. After a foul on Reddin, Forde's freekick from the rightfound its way from defender's header to Scunthorpe United loanee Declan Howe atowards the back post and he cleverly hooked the ball into the net at the near post.

As half time approached, Truro made a blunder at the back when a ball was played across-field by a defender to Reddin. His effort was blocked but, from around 18 yards another Alty loanee, Liam Humbles, netted impressively (42 mins).

The second half was a poor affair, largely devoid of excitement. Altrincham seemed content to sit on their lead, with only sporadic attacking ambition being shown, whilst Truro failed to find a way to convert their forward momentum into a goal

But for Altrincham the result was all that mattered and the win lifted them to thirteenth.

SCORERS:

• 28 mins: Declan HOWE (ALTRINCHAM 1 Truro City 0)
• 42 mins: Liam HUMBLES (ALTRINCHAM 2 Truro City 0)

REFEREE: Mr Richard Aspinall

ATTENDANCE: 2,148 (132 in away section)

TEAM NEWS:

The injured list today comprised Ross, Banks, Sass-Davies, Breckin, Khan, Olson, Kosylo and Crankshaw. In addition, Sassi and Golden remained suspended, meaning ten players were unavailable.

Two changes were made for this game with Forde and Reddin starting in place of Kosylo and Crankshaw. On the bench Joel Bailey returned to the squad whilst there was a first inclusion for Academy midfielder Kian Mattison.

For Truro, Pyke, Janneh. Kite dropped out of the eleven as Harvey, Issaka and Charsley replaced them.

LINE-UP:

ALTRINCHAM (Red shirts with white pinstripes, black shorts, white socks): 30. Luke Hutchinson, 26. Anthony Forde, 5. Jake Cooper, 6. Josh Grant, 33. Eddy Jones, 22. Tom Crawford (c), 28. Liam Humbles, 8. Isaac Marriott, 20. Kahrel Reddin, 11. Jimmy Knowles, 9. Declan Howe. Subs: 3. Sam Reed, 24. Sam Barnes, 17. Lucas Weaver, 25. Joel Bailey, 27. Louie Fallon (gk), 32. Kian Mattison, 40. Charlie Kirk

TRURO CITY (All sky blue): 24. Aidan Stone, 5. Tom Harrison, 33. George Cooper, 12. Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, 3. Connor Riley-Lowe (c), 4. Will Dean, 17. Caleb Roberts, 18. Freddie Issaka 11. Dominic Johson-Fisher, 32. Harry Charsley, 9. Tyler Harvey. Subs: 1. Dan Lavercombe (gk), 2. Zac Bell, 15. Luke Jephcott, 19. Rekell Pyke, 20. Ryan Law, 21. Max Kinsey, 27. Salkou Janneh, .

BACKGROUND:

With three wins in their last four outings, Altrincham's form had greatly improved recently and they started this game lying 15th, albeit having played more games than three of the clubs below them who could catch them by winning their matches in hand.

Despite an excellent away draw at Southend in midweek, The Tinners were bottom of the National League, eleven points from safety.

Altrincham had won the reverse fixture in Cornwall, 1-0.

Truro brought a commendable 132 supporters with most, no doubt, still resident in the Truro area and therfore making a 644-mile return journey to support The Tinners.

Before kick-off, a minute's applause followed a tribute over the tannoy to Mike Adams, the former financial director of Altrincham FC, who had sadly died recently.

REPORT:

Truro kicked off defending the away end and made by far the better start to the game, creating six good chances in the first twenty minutes and that tally excluded their first shot, by Dean, which was blocked, as early as the third minute.

Three minutes later Alty stood back and admired as Issaka was allowed to cut in from the left and fire in a shot which Hutchinson and the post kept out at the near post (6 mins).

A minute later Roberts was likewise granted the freedom of Moss Lane as he advanced and fired in a shot from just outside the box which the alert Hutchinson had to push over the bar for a corner (7 mins).

And, just another minute later, another shot from the edge of the box had to be saved by the busy Alty keeper at the foot of the upright, again conceding a corner (8 mins).

At last the home fans had something to cheer about as a fine ball up the right by makeshift right-back Forde allowed Howe to win a corner at the other end (9 mins)

But normal business resumed at the other end when Hutchinson dwelt on the ball and was closed down faciltating another good chance for the Tinners but, this time, Issaka shot wide. Four chances for the Tinners in 12 minutes became five openings in 16 minutes when Roberts and Issaka tore the Alty defence open once more but a last-ditch tackle inside the box by Jones saved the day for the hosts.

Incredibly the chances kept coming for Truro when, from a freekick 45 yards out on the right touchline, a freekick was met by Harvey's unchallenged header which drew a great save from Hutchinson, diving to his left to push the shot away (17 mins).

And when a Truro man got past Grant, Alty were spared by a bad miss from the centre of the box by a Truro player. Seven opposition chances in less than 20 minutes elicited cries of "Too easy" from spectators and it would have been eight chances when Issaka and Roberts again combined to get to the byeline inside the Alty box but for an offside flag to halt the duo.

Next, a cross from the right only narrowly evaded a Truro man beyond the back post before Altrincham began, slowly, to improve. But Howe was then caught offside (26 mins) before Reddin won a freekick on the right. Forde's freekick was diverted out to Howe, in the back post area, and from there he hooked a well-taken shot across goal and into the net (28 mins).

It was the Scunthorpe loanee's third goal in five appearances and prompted a somewhat bizarre celebration as he headed towards the Popular Side. To say the goal had come against the run of play would be an outrageous understatement.

The goal both stimulated Altrincham's improvement and deflated the visitors as Altrincham enjoyed the better of the next ten minutes. Reddin was looking lively on the right and, after losing the ball, he won it back off Harrison but, from inside the box, his well-hit shot was pushed over the bar for an Altrincham corner (39 mins).

The Tinners then made a suicidal cross-field pass about 25 yards out from their own goal and this allowed Reddin to threaten but his effort came out to Humbles who, from more than 20 yards, fired a fine shot through the crowded box and into the net to make it 2-0 (42 mins).

In the 45th minute Truro responded to falling further behind when Issaka won possession and advanced towards goal before his shot forced yet another good save from Hutchinson. Two minutes of added time left Altrincham two goals to the good when they could easily have been trailing by an even larger margin.

Alty replaced Forde by Barnes at right-back for the second half. Reddin soon got to the right bye-line before feeding Marriott, who hit his effort high over the goal into Golf Road (48 mins). Next, Reddin went down in the box but no peanlty was judged to be necessary by Mr Aspinall.

Truro's first change saw Law replace the capatain Riley-Lowe (54 mins). The sides then traded a corner apiece, Alty's being won by Reddin (55 mins) and Truro's by Johnson-Fisher (57 mins). For Alty, Weaver, whose six substitute appearances in the last eleven games had totalled a mere 49 minutes on the pitch, now got a longer run out as he replaced Howe up front (59 mins).

However, the second half deteriorated into a scrappy encounter; the only shot of note at this stage being Johnson-Fisher's effort which was held by Hutchinson (67 mins). The Alty keeper then picked up a booking for timewasting, his fifth yellow card of the league season (67 mins). That epitomised what seemed to the hosts' attitude, namely to hold onto what they had rather than try to build upon it.

Weaver did then get past his marker, only to blast his shot into orbit (70 mins) but that was a rare bit of goal-threat action as the game drifted on with litle ambition from Alty and insufficient guile from the visitors to break down Alty's defence. John Askey then addressed that issue by bringing on Pyke for Harvey up front (72 mins).

There was brief flurry of goalmouth action as the game reached the 80th minute, with Knowles forcing a save from Stone at his near post before Johnson-Fisher fired at goal at the other end, with Hutchinson failing to hold the ball, a defender had to complete the clearamce.

The Tinners' last gamble was a triple substitution as leading scorer Jephcott replaced Coope (81 mins), Janneh came on for Johnson-Fisher, and Bell replaced Issaka (82 mins). Next, Weaver again beat his man but promptly fell over insode the box as the game drifted on uneventfully till the 87th minute when Kirk and Reed replaced the Robins' Jones and Reddin.

After Truro had won a 90th minute corner, five added minutes were computed during which Marriott picked up a needless yellow card for not retreating at a freekick (90+4 mins). So ended a second half of largely second-rate fare but most importantly, Altrincham had secured a fourth win in five matches to lift themselves up to 13th inthe table, the joint highest position they have occupied since September 2025.

However, Alty now embark on a sequence of four away games in their next five fixtures which will test their ability to retain their mid-table position.

Luke Hutchinson was named as a deserved man of the match and few would argue with that after his string of first-half saves.