Right: Billy Blower.

ALTRINCHAM RESERVES: 1. Billy BLOWER, 2. James MONAGHAN, 3. Ashley BROWN, 4. George MELLING (capt.), 5. .... FROST, 6. Dwaine LYNSEY, 7. Michael BROWN, 8. Griff JONES, 9. Kwame ..., 10. Pat McFADDEN, 11. Danny GRIMSHAW. Subs: 12. Lee HENDLEY, 13. Craig ELLISON (gk), 14. "ADY", 15. Ivan...., 16. Jake ...., 17. Rico RICHARDS.

REPORT

Report courtesy of Neil Brown.

This friendly game had been arranged by former Alty Youth Team coach Neil Thomason, who tragically died at an early age ten days ago. To mark their respect for Neil, Springhead very kindly presented Neil Brown with a memorial plaque, which was much appreciated. They also held a minute's silence before the game in honour of Neil Thomason. In addition, the Oldham club treated their visitors to an excellent buffet and a generous welcome. Altrincham FC would like to record their sincere thanks to Springhead.

Neil Brown had a difficult job last season in re-forming the Altrincham Reserves side after a couple of years of inactivity. And just when he might have been able quietly to build on his team from last year, the club's first team got promoted to the national Conference and Neil and assistant Carlos Marsden have had to cast their net more widely to ensure that reserve players can step up smoothly into the first team as required. For this game, Altrincham adopted a 4-4-2 formation, with Melling and Frost at centre-back and in midfield, Mike Brown and Grimshaw on the flanks and Jones and Lynsey in the centre. Kwame and McFadden were the strike pairing. Melling had opted to play 90 minutes for the Reserves rather than 30 minutes for the first team against Greenock Morton, as he was keen to improve his match fitness still further. George, who became a first-team regular last season, was named as captain today.

In the opening stages, Altrincham played well, passing the ball about impressively in what was to be an even first half. But Springhead took the lead after about ten minutes from a free-kick which led to a headed goal at the back post. But Altrincham levelled the score after 35 minutes when Danny Grimshaw got the ball on the left and found Kwame, whose impressive physique has earned him the nickname "The Bull". Kwame switched the ball between his feet, as he was challenged, before planting a right-foot shot into the bottom corner of the net. Half time arrived with the scores level.

At half-time, Alty made four changes with Mike Brown, Danny Grimshaw, Frost and McFadden coming off. In their places, Jake replaced Brown on the right, Ivan took over from Grimshaw on the left, Hendley went up front in place of McFadden and Ady came on in midfield. Dwaine Lynsey moved to centre-back and put in an impressive performance there, alongside Melling. Griff Jones went up front and Richards came on in midfield. Some one-touch football produced the second goal for Altrincham scored by Ady, after Jake, on the right, relayed the ball via Richards and Hendley (60 mins). Alty's third goal arrived five minutes later when Richards tapped the ball into the net. Kwame scored his second and Alty's fourth goal when he challenged the keeper as he went up for a high ball into the box. It was not completely clear how the ball went in; either it was headed in as the keeper tried to catch it, or the keeper knocked it onto the Alty man's head. That made it 4-1 after about 80 minutes.