FA
Trophy 1st Round - 15th December 2007
At Moss Lane - Att 752
Report
City made history on two fronts in the cold Cheshire Saturday
afternoon. They equalled the club record of successive away
victories and won their first ever FA Trophy game in the process.
It wasn't pretty at times, but, after a dour first half, City
prevailed with strikes from Craig
Farrell, Anthony
Lloyd and Nicky Wroe
in a 3-1 win.
After a bright opening with chances at both ends, the first
half was largely forgettable. Farrell and Onome
Sodje both had chances and Martyn
Woolford struck a post with a fierce volley while, at the
other end, Chris Senior's overhead kick went just over the bar
after Tom Evans missed
a cross and a free header caused pandemonium among the City
defence as it pinballed around before being deflected narrowly
wide.
The game descended into a mirthless midfield melee in the middle
section of the half. With the ball spending much of the time
in the air, you could have sneaked the Stone Roses on to play
a selection of hits and few would have noticed. There was little
for any of the 752 crowd to cheer, but the large, Italianate
display of flags and banners from a section of the 190 City
supporters brightened proceedings somewhat.
The last five minutes of the first half seemed to trigger something
in both sides that made them aware of what they were supposed
to be doing. Colin Little and Jake Sedgemore both sent shots
wide of the City goal while Farrell couldn't hit the target
when in acres of space and Manny
Panther's attempt at a scissors kick brough the best out
of Stuart Coburn in the Altrincham goal.
The second half also took a while to get going and Alty had
the best chance early when Senior saw his shot blocked and ex-City
man Joe O'Neill blazed wide, troubling only the corner flag
rather than the goal. City repsonded in fine style with another
bullocking Panther run - a strong feature of his game in a splendid
display - ended with his cross being turned into Farrell's path
and he lashed it into the bottom corner to break the deadlock
and dispel fears of a dreaded replay. Farrell had another effort
saved after a cheeky Sodje dummy that Coburn grabbed at the
second effort, but the Alty stopper was partially at fault as
he parried another Farrell shot into the path of Anthony Lloyd
who lifted it over Coburn and into the net for 2-0.
Altrincham responded by bringing on Carlos Logan and Gareth
Whalley and it was a Whalley surge that saw McGurk step across
him to attract the game's only booking. From the free-kick,
Little got across the defence at the near post and he turned
the ball in from an acute angle to bring Altrincham back into
it. Colin Walker's
reaction was to bring on Chris
Beardsley and Nicky Wroe and switch to a flat back four.
Ten minutes after their introduction, and only a minute from
time, the two substitutes combined to seal the match. Beardlsey
drove down the right and squared the ball for Wroe to spank
it home from the edge of the box.
After some moments of pure tedium, the game did eventually get
going, but the driving force behind the City performance was
undoubtedly Manny Panther who kept going when all around him
seemed slightly distracted. Anthony Lloyd took a while to get
into the game, but proved a more than able deputy for Mark
Robinson wide on the left while Ben
Purkiss again had a strong showing on the right. The club
are now in the second round proper of a Cup competition for
the first time in many moons and have a chance to extend both
that run and that of consecutive away wins in the Setanta Shield
next week as we travel to Stafford Rangers. It's clear that
the FA Trophy doesn't capture the imagination of supporters
as the crowd at Moss Lane will testify. Will the Setanta Shield?
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