ALTRINCHAM RESERVES: 1. Craig ELLISON, 2. James MARSDEN (capt), 3. Ashley BROWN, 4. Colin McALLISTER, 5. Laurence BALL, 6. Steve ASPINALL, 7. Michael BROWN, 8. John MALONEY, 9. Pat McFADDEN, 10. Ben DEEGAN, 11. Kieran KILACKY. Subs: Kwame BARNETT, Byron JENKINS, Adam DOCKER.

REPORT

This report is based on information kindly supplied by Neil Brown

This was Altrincham Reserves' first game for almost four weeks but they went into the match top of the table on the back of a run of 13 undefeated games including 11 wins and they had scored 69 goals in their 17 matches to date.A change from the last game, back in November against Ossett Albion, was that Steve Aspinall continued his rehabilitation in midfield rather than at right-back, where captain James Marsden played tonight. Youth teamer Ben Deegan continued up front whilst Kieran Kilacky came into the starting line-up for Danny Heffernan. Kwame Barnett returned, on the bench, alongside newcomers Byron Jenkins and Adam Docker. Jenkins is an under-13s' coach at Macclesfield Town whilst Docker is a 6ft 3inch former Bury man.

Having been so prolific this season, Altrincham surprisingly failed to land a decent shot on goal in the whole 90 minutes tonight. Although they started the game as the better team for 10 or 15 minutes, and they had some good spells later in the game, overall the passion of former displays was missing after the long lay-off enforced by the weather. For their part Marine closed down Alty very well and adopted a fluid formation which saw them switch from 4-5-1 to a more attacking 3-5-2 when in possession. Despite their good start, Alty fell behind to a badly conceded goal. The ball was played from the Marine right to the left where three of the home side players were left unattended and with time for one of them to gather the ball and score with ease into the top corner from five yards out.

The second goal for Marine came when Ashley Brown's firm clearance unluckily rebounded from the chest of an opponent and dropped conveniently for the Marine man to go on and score. Alty felt that the third goal was offside but no flag came and, by then, the damage had already been done. All three Alty subs were used but were unable to turn around a disappointing team performance from which, neverthless, keeper Craig Ellison emerged with credit for several excellent saves.