In a goalless first half Altrincham gave as good as they got against the promotion aspirants and, indeed, it was they who spurned the best chance of the half when Crawford shot wide from a good opening. However, Evans was the slightly busier keeper, albeit even he had only a couple of saves to make.

Altrincham took the lead in the 54th minute when Knowles netted from outside the box on the right, with a low, left-footed shot into the far corner of Ross's net.

But a mistake by Banks to the right of the Altrincham goal allowed FGR to work the ball to McAllister who equalised little more than a minute later (55 mins).

The goal boosted Rovers and they dominated the attacking momentum for the rest of the second half, ending up with 27 shots in the game as a whole.

But, although Evans made a few fairly routine saves, the hosts could not score and they were stunned when, deep imto added time, Taylor won possession on the left. He interchanged passes with Breckin before getting into the box. From the left his low cross-cum-shot was netted from close range by Reddin, arriving at the back post, to clinch the three points.

SCORERS:

• 54 mins: Jimmy KNOWLES (Forest Green Rovers 1 ALTRINCHAM 1)
• 55 mins: Kyle McALLISTER (Forest Green Rovers 1 ALTRINCHAM 1)
• 90(+5) mins: Kahrel REDDIN (Forest Green Rovers 1 ALTRINCHAM 2)

REFEREE: Mr Richard Aspinall

ATTENDANCE: 1,783 (78 in away section)

TEAM NEWS:

For Altrincham, Cooper came in for Kosylo and Barnes returnedto the squad on the bench but Lucas Weaver was again missing as were the long-term injured quartet of Charlie Olson (hamstring), Eddie Jones (hamstring), Owen German (ruptured achilles) and Kristian Dennis (unspecified injury).

Rovers made three changes as Rees and Patrick moved to the bench and ex-Alty man James Berry dropped out. Into the eleven came Osude, Kelly and Etaluku. Ethan Ross was named in goal to face his forner employers.

LINE-UP:

FOREST GREEN ROVERS (All lime shirt with leopard print, lime shorts and socks) 1. Ethan Ross, 4. Jayden Clarke, 6. Tate Campbell, 7. Kyle McAllister (c), 8. Nick Haughton, 16. Joshua Osude, 20. Sean Etaluku, 24. Sydney Agina, 25. Kyle Kelly, 26. Filozole Mabete, 27. Freddie Sass. Subs: 3. N. Kengni, 9. D'Mani Mellor, 12. Luke McNicholas, 5. Kyle Ajayi, 17. Oli Ewing, 10. Ricardo Rees, 14. Omari Patrick,

ALTRINCHAM (Red shirts with white sleeves and trim, red shorts and white socks): 1. Owen Evans; 21. Reuben Lopata-White, 5.Jake Cooper, 2. Lewis Banks, 15. Sam Taylor, 22. Tom Crawford (c), 8. Liam Humbles, 7. Otis Khan, 10. Aidan Barlow, 23. Charlie Kirk, 11. Jimmy Knowles. Subs: 4. Jack Hinchy, 12. Kian Breckin, 13. Andy Firth (gk), 14. Matty Kosylo, 20. Kahrel Reddin 28. Kane Hemmings, 24. Sam Barnes

BACKGROUND:

Altrincham had won last time out to end a sequence of three defeats since the start of the season. FGR had also made a disappointing start to the campaign having only won two of their opening four fixtures.

REPORT:

FGR kicked off on a sunny afternoon and, apart from Osude heading well over the bar after an advance on their right (3 mins), there was little of note before Altrincham earned the match's first corner through a Barlow cross (4 mins).

Five minutes later Agina went down and the referee called for the physio. The FGR got up before help arrived and he and his team-mates were displeased at the player having to go off the field regardless (9 mins)

FGR have "live" advertising panels around the ground and these repeatedly displayed a "Free Palestine" message to which the football authorities may take exception.

Play continued fairly scrappily, but evenly balanced, before Barlow got into the home penalty area and forced the first save of the match from Ethan Ross (13 mins).

FGR responded by earning a corner but the eftermath produced no mre than a skied shot.

The Altrincham supporters may have been outnumbered but were in good voice as they cheered on their team. Alty reciprocated as a Kirk cross won the Robins a corner and this came out to Crawford whose well-struck effort from 20 yards was beaten out by Ross for another flag-kick for the visitors (19 mins).

AT the other end, Evans had to make a save, parrying the ball away, as the game passed the midway point of the half (23 mins). Soon afterwards came the best chance of the game so far when Kirk and Taylor combined before the latter's cross found Crawford. But the Altrincham captain got his shot wrong, firing wide from a presentable chance (25 mins).

Next, a Forest Green corner came and went but Altrincham were certainly holding their own. A foul by Osude on Humbles then brought the first booking of the afternoon, for the FGR man (29 mins0.

Play contied fairly evenly with another skied effort from th hosts their best affort at this stage (35 mins).

Play was stopped for a couple of minutes owing to a medical incident in the home end (36 mins). Soon afterwards Altrincham had to make a change as Lopata-White had to go off, apparently with symptoms of illness. He was replaced by Matty Kosylo (40 mins).

In the declared five added minutes, Evans made a routine save but the interval arrived with game goalless and the visitors having been a match for the hosts. The Alty keeper may have been marginally the busier but the visitors had also created the best chance of the first half which Crawford had not converted.

FGR manager Robbie Savage made two changes at the start of the second half, replacing Haughton and Osude by Patrick and Rees.

But Alty started the better of the sides with Kirk forcing a routine save with a cross/shot (46 mins). Soon afterwards Taylor also got in a cross, which Rovers cleared (48 mins).

Etaluku was looking lively on the FGR right amd he won the half's first corner off Taylor (49 mins). However, it was not long before a Kirk cross had to be cleared for an Altrincham corner (50 mins). A minute later Mcallister gained another FGR corner but the home support was soon to be stunned as Altrincham took the lead.

On the right, the three Ks combined with Kahn and Kosylo feeding Knowles. The Alty front man made himself a bit of space before sweeping a low left-footed shot into the far corner of Ross's net from right of goal (54 mins).

Kelly immediately replaced Ewing (55 mins)for Rovers before a ball up the left was missed by Lewis Banks in the right-back position. FGR worked the ball back to McAlliser who drove the ball home to make it 1-1 less than two minutes after Altrincham had taken the lead (55 mins).

The equaliser buoyed up Rovers and they now began to build sustained pressure on the Altrincham defence.

However, Etaluku soon got himself booked for a late challenge on Owen Evans after the Alty keeper had cleared the ball (61 mins). After treatment by Tom Cadm, Evans continued and, soon afterwards, he had to make a decent save from an FGR shot (65 mins).

Sass now replaced Kangni for the hosts (66 mins) and, over the next five minutes, Rovers won three corners

Betwen the first and second of these corners, Altrincham made a triple substitution, as Hemmings, Breckin and hinchy replaced Kirk, Humbles and Khan (72 mins).

As the largely one-way traffic continued, another home change brought on Mellor for Agina (79 mins). A foul on Knowles inside his own half brought some much needed relief for the visitors (83 mins). Alty built on this by winning a corner from a Barlow cross (85 mins).

But when Crawford was penalised for a foul, FGR won themselves another corner (87 mins). A further Altrincham change introduced Reddin for Barlow (88 mins) and the new man immediately won a frekick. Taken by Kosylo this ended with the ball being put into the home net but the effort was ruled out by the referee (89 mins).

Six added minutes were decreed and in the fifth of them Taylor won the ball inside his own half on the left. He got forward and played a one-two with Breckin on the left flank. Taylor then advanced into the box and played a cross cum shot across the box where the incoming Reddin put it into the net from close range to give his side the lead, 1-2 (90+5 mins).

Play continued for a couple of minutes before Altrincham could celebrate heir second win in three days which lifted them up to fifteenth amd moved them ahead of their hosts in the table. Despite winning the shot count 27-13, Forest Green had suffered their third defeat in five outings this season.