Blue
Square Premier - 19th January 2008
At Moss Lane - Att 1,610 (548 York)
Report
Setting out for Altrincham, news filtered through that games
at Macclesfield, Bury, Rochdale and Accrington were all off.
Would Altrincham survive the downpours affecting the rest of
the Manchester metropolitan area? Eventually, yes it would,
but it was a close run thing, with the bounce and run of the
ball proving untrustworthy. For the fourth game running, City
had to come from behind to get something out of the game and
preserve the unbeaten run. And again, there were opportunities
to have won the game, meaning it was difficult to tell whether
it was a point gained or two lost.
The first half gave little clue as the the drama of the whole.
The home side started brighter having the better chances without
really troubling Tom Evans'
goal. Stuart Elliott
had City's first real shot after a short free-kick was played
into his path after Martyn
Woolford had been hoofed into the air by Ryan Shotton, but
the midfielder's drive drifted well wide. Paul
Brayson tried to curl a shot into the far corner, but was
well wide, and his free-kick evaded everyone and found David
McGurk at the back post, but the shot went across the face
of goal and away to safety.
That would only have been an equaliser. Altrincham suffered
a setback when Tom Cahill had to be substituted after going
down injured on 17 minutes and Colin Little came on in his stead.
With five minutes of the first half remaining, an aimless ball
found itself at Little's feet. He turned Danny
Parslow inside-out on the edge of the box and almost tripped
over the ball before scuffing a shot beyond the wrong-footed
Evans to open the scoring.
City came out for the second period with much more of a sense
of purpose, typified by Manny
Panther who had clearly been instructed to get forward more.
The Altrincham defence shuffled a Panther cross back to Stuart
Coburn in the Robins goal moments before Panther's surge into
the penalty area brought only a corner, much to the chagrin
of the many travelling fans behind the goal who had seen a handball.
Altrincham countered quickly as City over-committed men to the
attack, but it ended when Evans saved James Jennings' goal-bound
shot. Alty stayed forward and were awarded a free-kick which
Ryan Toulson lifted into the mixer. With the City defence statuesque
and Evans rooted to his line, the ball fell to Little who lashed
a volley into the roof of the net for 2-0.
One thing that is evidenced by this recent run is the character
of the squad. That and the versatility of the players. The joker
this week was played on the hour as Anthony
Lloyd was brought on in place of Onome
Sodje, with Woolford pushing up front. If it was a gamble,
it took just three minutes to pay off. Parslow played a tempting
ball down the right for Panther to run on to. With two defenders
converging, Panther was third favourite to reach the ball, but
with pace to burn he had those defenders on toast. A quick look
up and a swing of the right boot and the ball found Woolford,
who had made 50 yards to get up in support, unmarked on the
six-yard line and a simple tap home brought a great move to
an end and City back into the game.
Panther was at the heart of the move that brought parity back
to the scoreline. He chased a lost cause down the left and his
near-post cross saw Woolford get across the defence to head
home from a narrow angle. It was all City after that. Richard
Brodie, who replaced Brayson early in the second half, caused
lots of problems, never moreso than when combining with Ben
Purkiss to send in a cross that Woolford narrowly failed
to nod in from a similar position to his second. Woolford had
an even better chance to complete a hat-trick after yet another
lung-busting run from Panther - set free thanks to a great touch
from Brodie - but Woolford blazed over when it looked like he
had more time than he realised. Nicky
Wroe, similarly, should have scored from a similar position
after he and Woolford had worked their way up the left-hand
touchline. Both were glorious opportunities that could have
won the game for City, but Altrincham somehow held out for their
second 2-2 draw with City this season.
"I've got to be happy with a draw, but there's a touch
of anger in there too" was Colin
Walker's summary. "If it was a boxing match, then it
would have been stopped in the first half. We were poor in the
final third, but we had an ace up our sleeve and that was Martyn
Woolford". Credit where it's due to Altrincham though,
they worked hard to get themselves into pole position and did
just about enough to hang on at the end. "They give most
teams a game" said the City supremo, "but we gave
a sloppy first goal away. Why we only start playing when we're
two behind is something we'll have to look at, but we played
some terrific football in the second half - some of the best
since I've been here - after they got a bit of a rocket at half-time".
Training for this game could have gone better. On Friday, Darren
Kelly pulled a hamstring that will keep him out for 4-6 weeks.
"He's been playing football non-stop for 18 months now"
said Walker of the overlap between the Irish and English seasons,
while Craig Farrell pulled up and when Richard Brodie turned
on his previously injured ankle, "we had to stop training
there in case we lost anyone else".
The spirit in the camp is undeniable and was a massive factor
in rescuing this game as well as previous ones. The verdict
from the boss: "My passion comes out in those players on
the pitch". That much is obvious and it's great to see.
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