YOUTH REPORT

With Ben Oliver, Jack Kimber, Tom Bailey and Danny Browne all playing in the Manchester Colleges trials, Alty were without four regular starters today. So Declan Wakefield moved to right-back, Alex Murphy returned at centre-back. Steven Crane took over the captaincy and Gavin O'Connor came in to the starting eleven, up front.

Right: Daniel Killilea tracks back as Chris Francis keeps his eye on the approaching ball.

Altrincham took the game to Bootle from the kick-off and went into the lead in the sixth minute. The goal came when a back pass to the Bootle keeper was not immediately kicked clear. Instead, the Bootle no.1 took a touch which allowed Sam Madeley to burst forward and block the attempted clearance. The ball cannoned off the Alty striker leaving Madeley with the ball at his feet and a completely open goal. He blasted the ball home to put Alty ahead, with this not being the first time this season that Madeley had shown such opportunism in chasing down goalkeepers and defenders.

A couple of minutes later Killilea fired over the bar after a good build up involving Madeley and O'Connor. But when Madeley was set free in the 13th minute, left of goal, following Killilea's excellent lay-off to O'Connor, the Alty striker blasted his shot over the bar. But, against the run of play, Bootle equalised in the 14th minute. After advancing up their left side a ball was played to the near post where Williams's first touch knocked the ball forward but he was then allowed to nod the loose ball past Andrew Jones from very close range.

Killilea had a goalbound shot deflected off target (18 mins) but, soon afterwards, Bootle scored an excellent goal when Charlie Jones looped the ball over Andrew Jones from 20 yards to give the visitors the lead (23 mins). Charlie Jones had also been causing Alty some problems on the Bootle right but Altrincham held firm and were soon back on level terms. The equaliser came when Madeley laid the ball off for Killilea to slot a low shot calmly into the net to the keeper's right (28 mins). When O'Connor fed Melling-Fong his good shot was beaten out by the Bootle keeper (33 mins). An Alty corner followed but just before the break Bootle went close when Riley had a shot deflected wide (43 mins). Despite a late corner for Altrincham the score remained level at the break.

Bootle started the second half well and Alty took three attempts to scramble away an attack (47 mins). Bootle's Williams was then booked for kicking the ball away (50 mins) but the visitors enjoyed a good share of possession as the second half reached the hour point. Now Weir came on for O'Connor in the Alty attack. Soon afterwards Melling-Fong went down injured and had to be taken off (68 mins). After a couple of minutes playing with ten men as Melling-Fong received treatment, Rohin Lalli came on to replace him, but slotted into the right-wing berth rather than central midfield (70 mins). Soon afterwards, Bootle's Myers replaced Smith. Then, soon after a fine shot from Williams had gone narrowly wide of the Alty goal, the home side won a corner (77 mins). After failing to create many chances in the second half Alty finally found the net again with a very well taken goal by Dominic Lillie whose shot from 12 yards, left centre, was parried by the keeper but had sufficient strength to carry on into the net (79 mins).

Bootle responded by winning a corner and, soon afterwards, following a defensive mix-up by Alty, Mea fired narowly wide (85 mins). A minute later Bootle's Garbett gave way to Symes as they adopted a 4-3-3 formation in pursuit of an equaliser. But good persistence from Lalli on the right wing won possession for Alty and from his resulting cross, Madeley arrived at the ball at the same time as a defender but managed to squeeze the ball into the net from very close range to make it 4-2 (88 mins).

Six minutes of added time were played and in the third of these Alty's Cosgrave came on for Killilea. A minute later Bootle's Charlie Jones was booked, with the referee almost showing him a red card by mistake before producing a yellow. Alty rode out the final minutes to record a 4-2 win in an an entertaining match which kept them in contention at the top end of the table.