ALTRINCHAM RESERVES: 1. Irisalvino SANTY, 2. James MARSDEN (capt.) 3. Matt TOOTH, 4. George MELLING, 5. Adam BRINDLE, 6. Sean SMITH, 7. Paul TILLEY, 8. Lewis CHALMERS, 9. ADIO Marchant, 10. Adie ORE, 11. Kieran JAMES. Subs: 12. Paul MONAGHAN, 13. Sam FOX (gk), 14. Michael BROWN, 15. Michael CARTNER, 16. Ashley BROWN.

REPORT

The notes that follow are based on information from Neil Brown, the Alty Reserves' manager. Any errors are mine.

Alty started with Portuguese keeper Santy making his debut. Sean Smith moved to left midfield and Lewis Chalmers returned to the side. Adio Marchant partnered Adie Ore up front and Kieran James played on the left.

The game was played on a difficult surface. After BPA had dominated the first ten minutes, Altrincham took over. Around the half hour mark Ore picked up the ball on the right, went past a central defender and planted a fine shot into the bottom, right-hand corner of the net. Five minutes later, Ore added a second when he put an excellent shot past the keeper from a Chalmers pass.

As half-time approached, Alty had three minutes of madness. A BPA corner to the back post saw the tall BPA striker bundle the ball into the net as the Alty defence and keeper suffered a communications failure (42 mins). Then BPA added a second when a player got behind the defence. Santy came to get the ball but was beaten to it and the ball was put into the open net from the right of goal, despite Melling's attempts to block it on the line (44 mins).

In the second half, Altrincham had more of the play but created no real chances and the score remained locked at 2-2. This was a game Altrincham should have won.