ALTRINCHAM & DISTRICT YOUTH (0) 1 RUNCORN & DISTRICT YOUTH (2) 3
Cheshire County FA District Youth Cup
group stage match
played on Sunday, 16 October, 2011
at Trafford FC, Shawe View
LINE-UPS
ALTRINCHAM & DISTRICT FA YOUTH (Yellow shirts with blue trim, red shorts, blue socks): 1. Cody Wharton, 2. Liam Rutledge, 4. Ben Hamilton, 5. Joe Coombs (capt), 3. Sam Grimshaw, 7. Redmond McGuire, 6. Matt Fearon, 8. Oliver Riley, 11. Josh Palmer, 9. Jack Martiny-Schofield, 10. Jack Woolley. Subs: 12. Ryan Barry, 14. Derryn Ofori, 15. Nathan Gray, 16. Jordan Mainoo-Hames, 17. Shakeel Depeiaza
REPORT
Already without goalkeeper Adam Reid, whose has elected to develop his role as Stuart Coburn's understudy at Altrincham FC rather than agree to the Cheshire County FA's requirement that would have prevented his being involved with the first team, Altrincham & District FA Youth were also without several regular Altrincham FC Youth team players today. Amongst the other absentees were striker Duncan Watmore, who is on holiday, defender Alan Tansinda, winger Declan Barry and midfielder Ryan Barry, who sadly suffered a recurrence of his Achilles problem in today's warm-up.
So, Cody Wharton came in to keep goal, whilst Jack Woolley started up front. Redmond McGuire and Josh Palmer were on the flanks. A number of the Runcorn side were members of the Runcorn Linnets Youth side, knocked out of the FA Youth Cup by Altrincham recently. A win today for Altrincham would secure progress to the District Cup final.
Altrincham started the game on the back foot and were very lucky not to concede an early game when the visitors no.10 got past Coombs before rounding Wharton; but, faced with an open goal, he put his shot against the underside of the cross bar from where it bounced away with the officials ruling that it had not crossed the line for a goal (5 mins).
Though Altrincham slowly improved, they fell behind some ten minutes later when the Runcorn no.9's shot found the back of the net in the 16th minute. Alty then had some bad luck when a good shot from the left by Josh Palmer came back off the inside of the far post and was cleared (23 mins). Play was fairly even now, as the game passed the half-way mark. Then Martiny-Schofield did well up the left and got to the by-line but his shot only found the side netting (34 mins). Soon afterwards, Woolley shot wide before Wharton was obliged to save from the Runcorn no.9 at the other end (40 mins).
Runcorn's no.10 was then allowed to advance towards goal before firing a shot past Wharton to make it 2-0 (41 mins). Just before the break, Runcorn made a change as their no. 14 replaced the no.9 (44 mins).
| Half-Time: ALTRINCHAM & DISTRICT YOUTH 0 RUNCORN & DISTRICT YOUTH 2 |
Altrincham kicked off the second half but Runcorn pressure yielded the half's first corner. Seven minutes into the half Ofori replaced McGuire for Altrincham, on the right wing. Soon after a Coombs surge forward had been halted, and just four minutes after joining the match, Ofori scored for Altrincham. He latched onto a long ball, with Runcorn claiming he was offside. But he was allowed to proceed and drew the keeper before scoring well, from left of goal (56 mins).
Runcorn made another change as their no.11 gave way to no.17 (59 mins). Altrincham now got the upper hand and Martiny-Schofield saw a shot blocked as the game passed the hour mark. Altrincham next won a corner but then play stopped after Martiny-Schofield went down amidst claims of an elbow from the opposition. After consulting his assistant, the referee had a brief word with the visitors' left-back.
Runcorn made another change, as their no.4 went off, but another Alty corner soon followed (66 mins). Alty continued to have the upper hand before Ofori got booked for a foul on Runcorn's no.3 (71 mins).
The visitors' number 5 soon joined Ofori in the referee's notebook for a trip on Grimshaw as he surged up the left wing. Altrincham continued to make the running but could not get the equalizer. The Runcorn no.14 then went close before Altrincham won two more corners. But time was running out and in the last minute of mormal time, Runcorn broke upfield and their no.10 fed the no.14 to his right and his low shot beat Wharton to put the game beyond Alty's reach at 1-3 (90 mins).
Several minutes of added time could not alter the score line and, so, Alty must now win their final group stage match at home to Macclesfield and District in November to be sure to qualify for the final.
| Full-Time: ALTRINCHAM & DISTRICT YOUTH 1 RUNCORN & DISTRICT YOUTH 3 |