Altrincham Football Club News Archive
31 January to 4 February 2005

NEW SIGNING

Mark Maddox and Jozzer Mitten are suspended tomorrow, Colin Potts and Chris Adams (right) are both out, injured, and Gary Talbot remains an uncertain starter. George Melling will continue at centre-back and Lewis Chalmers and Richard Acton come into the squad.

BARROW GAME

Meanwhile, Barrow boss "Lee Turnbull has snapped up 19 year old midfielder Danny Forde immediately on his release from Oldham Athletic... Forde has been in the Latics' First Team squad for the last 18 months... He has however not made played for the senior side. He is a midfielder, who can also play in defence and is available for Saturday's FA Trophy tie at Altrincham". (Other sources list him as a 17 year-old, born on 6.10.87).

Barrow have also set up a Support Group which meets monthly "with the sole aim to raise funding and ensure that Barrow AFC has the facility to accommodate an under 18 and reserve set up. The club agreed that it would not be viable (for them) to run both these teams in light of current problems. The voluntary support group had a target set to raise between £7,000-£10,000 to ensure that the two teams would successfully complete this season... Sponsorship or donations are the main source of income which cover travel costs to the away games. The admission costs for home games are adults £2 and children £1... with gates topping the hundred mark".

REPORT

OLD BOY

LOCAL NEWS

NATIONWIDE NORTH

"Andy Preece wants to take Worcester City into the Football League to rival neighbours Cheltenham Town and Kidderminster Harriers after he was unveiled as the new player-manager to replace John Barton... One casualty though of the new regime will be player/assistant-manager John Snape, who will be replaced by Andy Morrison... Preece, 37, has signed an eighteen-month contract with City and will commute from his Blackpool home, although plans to stay over in in Worcestershire where his dad lives... Preece has already established himself a solid reputation as a manager who can work with limited spending power, although he said the City budget was not a shoestring one". Preece said, "City was probably the only club in this division to go to for obvious reasons. For me it's a massive club. I remember making my debut when I was 16 in a 3-0 win that put us top of the Conference, so it has happy memories". The new boss said, "Obviously we are in a difficult position at the minute but I haven't given up hope of getting a good run together and hopefully that will take us very close to the play offs... Hopefully we can be very close to being a Football League side" reports the Worcester Standard.

Hucknall Today reports that "A domestic squabble over an inferior competition this week threatened to overshadow Hucknall Town's bid to reach the last 16 of the FA Trophy for the first time... The biggest talking-point on the eve of the tie surrounds a match that was originally scheduled for the same day - a Notts FA Senior Cup, Third Round visit to Pelican, who are riding high in the Central Midlands League. For efforts to re-arrange the tie have triggered a blazing row that has developed into a farcical saga... Pelican cannot stage the game in midweek because their ground does not have floodlights. In a bid to break the stalemate, Town decided to send their under-19s' team to fulfil the tie tomorrow. But... Notts FA moved swiftly to scupper the idea". Player/manager Dean Barrick said "We will do whatever we are told to do but it is a headache I could do without!" Town secretary Brian Scothern "wants the club to pull out of the Senior Cup" but Pelican secretary Neil Swift retorted ""We have been shit on!.. It is our fixture. But we will play it at Watnall Road any time, any night. Hucknall will win anyway. If we played them 99 times out of 100, we might draw once. But they are so far ahead now. They shouldn't be in the competition. They are too big... I blame chairman Brian Holmes who wants the trophy [sitting] on his telly".

Alfreton Town boss David Lloyd has recruited Luke Foster in time for this Saturday's FA Trophy 4th round clash against Conference side Woking at the Impact Arena... Central defender Foster, 19, joins the Reds on loan from Sheffield Wednesday

BIG NAMES AT MOSS LANE

The contestants for Nationwide North Player of the Month are Banim (Droylsden), Fearns (Southport), Maxfield (Barrow), Philpott (Harrogate) and Ricketts (Hucknall).

NEW BOSS

SUPPORT THE LADS!

Howard Watts's Through the Years data for Saturday is here.

Unconfirmed reports say that Barrow, like Alty (with Potts, Talbot and Adams) have injury problems (with Neil Tarrant, Gavin Knight, Michael Kewley, Scott Maxfield and Steve Ridley, the latter two failing to complete last Saturday's game. The NW Evening Mail adds that Barrow "reserves could field former Carlisle United defender Adam Thwaite in their line-up [last night]". Midfielder Graham Anthony "and the rest of Barrow’s first team are without a midweek game as they prepare for Saturday’s FA Trophy fourth round clash at Altrincham. So that gives [the] Bluebirds Reserves' boss... the opportunity to play both Gareth Simpson and Ian Kilford in his midfield". Meanwhile, first-team boss Lee Turnbull said, "We are talking to a Conference club as well [as a Championship club] about the possibility of a centre-half who is maybe available... It’s a Conference club down south... It’s probably one or the other though, I would have thought. I don’t think finances will give us the opportunity to bring both in. If I’m totally honest it will probably be the Conference player... He’s nearly 21 whereas the lad at the Championship club is 19".

DERBY AT MOSS LANE

CHESHIRE SENIOR CUP

OLD BOYS

NATIONWIDE NORTH

Runcorn FC Halton have announced "the capture of midfielder Scott Willis from Conference side Halifax Town. 23-year old Willis, who has signed for the Linnets until the end of the season, has had spells at a host of football league clubs in his short career, and he hopes that a spell at Runcorn can be his springboard back into the Football League... After his release from Carlisle, he joined Unibond side Bamber Bridge before moving to fellow Unibond outfit Droylsden. Lincoln City then snapped him up in August 2002 and his form helped them to the play-off final in the 2002/03 season. Whilst at Lincoln, Willis attracted the interest of Millwall who were rumoured to be interested in signing the player for a fee of around £250,000. After falling out of favour at Lincoln, he has had loan spells at Stockport County and Hereford United before moving to Halifax Town at the start of this season. New Runcorn boss Steve Soley said 'I know Scott from my days at Carlisle United and I was delighted when he said that he would sign for us. Scott is without a doubt a football league player, and I hope that he takes this opportunity to show league clubs what they are missing out on'".

NL Daily Alfreton Town meet woking in the Trophy on Saturday "In the league, because of the games in hand, Alfreton are perhaps still the team to beat... Alfreton chairman Wayne Bradley believes home advantage and home support will count for everything. He said: 'I feel it will all come down to support. I don't think Woking are going to bring the level of support they are used to seeing at home and I don't think they can create anything else other than what they have on the pitch... Form doesn't count for anything in this game. It is all about effort and all I know is that everyone who comes will see 100 per cent effort from every Alfreton player'".

IC Coventry reports that a "new striker is the top priority for Nuneaton Borough as manager Roger Ashby looks to boost his side's promotion ambitions... The Boro boss hopes to have a new front-runner in place... against... Harrogate Town on Saturday. Ashby said: 'We have identified several players who we would be interested in bringing to the club but the major stumbling block is the money. The better ones command more than we can afford'".

This is WCFC says that "Worcester City chairman Dave Boddy has picked out his man to succeed John Barton but is holding firm not to name the club's new manager until tomorrow afternoon... Former Notts County manager Gary Mills, ex-Forest Green Rovers boss Tim Harris and Stafford Rangers chief Phil Robinson are all believed to be in the running". Boddy added, "We've picked up just one point since Christmas and we have been in freefall. We've now got a big weekend coming up with Southport and Gainsborough. It's a good couple of games for the new manager to get his teeth into".

ALTY REACH FINAL: VAUXHALL MOTORS 2 ALTRINCHAM 3

Right: Steve Aspinall netted against his former club.

Match report here.

The Final will be at Witton on 15 March against Crewe Alexandra, so the league game at home to Hucknall, already re-arranged to 15 March is now to be re-arranged again.

RESULT

Stalybridge C. 1 Bradford PA 0

ACTON RETURNS

Goalkeeper Richard Acton has rejoined Altrincham after being released by Bangor City and will be on the bench for Saturday's Trophy match against Barrow.

ATTENDANCES

Terry Rowley's updated Conference North attendance chart is here.

ALTY DVD

STAR Director Jon Stack writes:

Good news! STAR has now received sufficient pre-orders for the Alty Highlights DVD for the project to be viable, and so we will be going ahead with it. In order to fund the purchase of the licence from the BBC we will have to pay out an up front sum to them, so if you would like to pay in advance for your DVD now, this will help us enormously to obtain sufficient cash in advance, but will also make sure that you'll be among the first to receive the DVD before it goes on open sale to all Alty fans.

We expect the DVD to be available in early April, but remember this is first come first served and a strictly limited edition (due to the terms of our licence from the BBC), so if you haven't already ordered yours, it would be worth doing so now.

The price of each DVD is £18, and those who have ordered in advance can collect from the Club shop at any home match when the DVD becomes available. If you would like us to post yours to you then please add £1 for postage and packing to your payment. Cheques should be payable to "STAR" and addressed to Jon Stack, STAR Alty Highlights DVD, c/o Altrincham Football Club, Moss Lane, Altrincham, Cheshire WA15 8AP, or simply bring a cheque to the Club Shop at half time at any home match and give to the STAR rep.

We're also looking for sponsors for the DVD, who are invited to support the project and in return each sponsor will be able to include their own message on the DVD and its packaging, and so associate their name with Alty’s great history, and on a collectors’ item which will be hugely popular with Alty fans and non league football connoisseurs everywhere. Depending on the amount of sponsorship, individual sponsors may be offered membership or life membership of the Supporters' Trust, whilst corporate sponsors may be offered corporate membership

If you have any questions or would like further information, or would like to discuss sponsorship of the DVD, then please contact me via e-mail or by phone on 01827 64471.

The STAR website has a summary of the recent AGM PArt 2

NATIONWIDE NORTH

After last night's loss at Droylsden, Alfreton Town are "still looking for their first point of 2005 after four straight league defeats. In a much changed Reds side, Michael Simpkins made his debut in the number 11 shirt... while there were first league starts of the season also for David Holmes and Paul Teather".

Kettering Town "have released former Peterborough United wide midfielder Daniel French. French... has found first-team opportunities hard to come by recently after being a regular earlier in the season". Manager Kevin Wilson "revealed more changes would be happening over the next couple of weeks".

The Stafford Rangers manager Phil Robinson has won the January Manager of the Month award.

LOCAL NEWS

Following the resignation of manager Geoff Lutley, Leigh RMI chairman Bill Taylor said that "the search for a replacement will commence immediately and in this regard we have a number of speculative applications and people in mind... We hope to have a replacement in place for our forthcoming fixture at Forest Green this Saturday. But if we fail to find the right person by then there are a number of internal options available to us".

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1 February 2005

TONIGHT

Alty will be without both Gary Talbot and Chris Adams tonight, after both limped off on Saturday. Gary has injured his side whilst Chris's groin injury is still to be fully diagnosed. Both will be receiving daily treatment in the hope that they may be fit for Saturday. So, Reserves' centre-back George Melling (left) makes his full debut tonight against Vauxhall Motors in the CSC semi-final, after coming on as a late sub on Saturday. George, 19, was at Blackpool and Morecambe before joining Altrincham.

According to NL Daily Vauxhall won their last game against BPA who "after dominating the opening half... were made to pay... when the Motormen stole the points with a fluke of a goal just after the hour".

LOCAL NEWS

A fortnight after being knocked out of the Trophy by Altrincham, Leigh RMI announce "the resignation of their manager Geoff Lutley. Mr Lutley stated the main reason for his decision was due to work commitments and that he has found it increasingly difficult to balance the demands of Conference football with his full time employment".

MARK'S 300TH

If he plays at Vauxhall tonight, centre-back Mark Maddox will be making his 300th appearance for Altrincham - congratulations! He has made 280 starts and 19 sub appearances to date and scored 11 goals - two of them in the last fortnight.

Terry Rowley kindly advises me that Mark made his debut as a right-back on 17 August 1996 in a 4-3 win over Rushden and Diamonds at Moss Lane. In addition to his Alty appearances, he made 3(+1) Conference appearances for Barrow in 1998/99 season. His 300 appearances place him 13th in the all-time Alty appearances list after John Davison (672), Stan Allan (564), Graham Heathcote (528), John Owens (506), Jeff Johnson (504), Neil Dewer (376), Cyril Barclay (359), Paul Cuddy (342), Jack Swindells (322), Micky Brooke (320), Paul France (309) and Ronnie Ellis (304).

BARROW PREPARE

The NW Evening Mail quoted Barrow manager Lee Turnbull after Saturday's draw with Runcorn. He said: "I’d have taken a scrappy 1-0 win, and if we had, we’d have had an open-top bus around Barrow. It would have been a massive result for us, but we take the positives from it. We’ve got a point, we’re doing okay and we’ll have a couple of players back [from suspension] for a big game next week" [at Altrincham in the Trophy].

LANCASTER INQUEST

Manager Phil Wilson writes of defeat at Altrincham on the Lancaster City website, "I was extremely disappointed with our performance against Altrincham... Altrincham on their own pitch are one of the best teams in the league and they are strong physically in all areas. We had to compete with them and win the individual battles, this we did not do... After half time Alty were the better side but we still had a great chance to equalise... I was very angry after the game because I felt the lads let themselves down badly. Some of the players that had played so well on Tuesday night were very poor, the only thing I can think of is they had their minds on next Saturday’s game... I can only apologise to our fans... it is not a game I want to remember too quickly... We are a small squad of players and when like last Saturday when we had five players injured Bauress, Dawes, Prince, Elderton and Sullivan, it is hard to field a team against the likes of Alty."

OLD BOY

"The Bamber Bridge management duo of Phil Entwistle and Andy Whittaker had a selection headache before Saturday’s clash with Hyde United ­ but a positive one, despite the eventual 4-0 defeat. The Irongate outfit secured the services of striker Peter Wright...from Nationwide North side Altrincham. The newly-appointed managerial duo are hoping that Wright will be able to re-ignite what looked like being a potentially good attacking partnership with Chris Ward at Irongate. Wright has already partnered fellow Prestonian Chris Ward at Nationwide Conference National strugglers Northwich Victoria... He signed for Altrincham in June 2004, although injury limited his appearances at Moss Lane... Whittaker said: "I've known Peter for a while. He's a local lad and I knew him from his time at Burscough... "He's scored goals at whatever level he's played, and is still only 22... He has a low centre of gravity, a good touch and an eye for goal" says Preston Today.

NATIONWIDE NORTH

NL Daily reports that "Bangor City have re-signed goalkeeper Phil Priestley from Stalybridge Celtic".

"After being released by Redditch United earlier this month, midfielder Craig Woodley has now returned to the same division with Hinckley United after a very brief spell with... Stratford Town. Woodley re-signed for Redditch in November 2003 after another short stint, this time with Worcester City". Other current NN clubs he has played for are Moor Green and Nuneaton Borough".

Worcester City complete interviewing for their new manager today, Tuesday, and "Pre-selection narrowed down 36 applicants to four for interview". Rumours claim that Andy Preece is one of them.

On financially troubled Runcorn's website programme editor Derek Greenwood says that the club is "looking for 100 fans to commit themselves to buy £100 of shares in the club either immediately or in two blocks of £50 over the next month or alternatively, if you do not wish to buy shares, to put that money into the club lottery which would cover the payments for the next 2 years at just £1 a week. Secondly, if you feel you cannot afford to put up £100 I would ask you to at least contribute £5 a month over the next 12 months to join the lottery".

Stalybridge Celtic are believed to have transfer-listed defender Lincoln Adams, signed recently from Ashton United. Alfreton are reported to have served seven days' notice on Worksop for Blake Norton.

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31 January 2005

ALTY DROP

After Droylsden's win tonight, they climbed above Alty, who are now sixth in the table.

Droylsden 3 Alfreton T. 2

LANCASTER GAME

Right: Gavin Rathbone's picture of Jozzer Mitten celebrating his goal.

As well as the two further Gavin Rathbone photos of last Saturday's game, which are lower down this page, there are more of his images on the STAR website (link above) whilst Lancaster have their own photos of the game here.

The match report is here.

NEXT

Alty travel to Vauxhall Motors on Tuesday for the Cheshire Senior Cup semi-final at Rivacre Road, a ground where they have yet to win a game! Howard Watts's Through the Years data for that day are here.

SOCIAL EVENTS

The club, with STAR, has arranged the following social events to raise funds: