Match Report

The Giant Axe was the scene of one of Altrincham's low-points during Mark Ward's managership last season- a tactical shambles and a 4-1 defeat in pouring rain. It rained again throughout this year's game but the outcome was a little more satisfying even if some of the events on the pitch were controversial.

Altrincham were unlucky not to win this game against a very disappointing Lancaster side and an even poorer referee. After Alty had had the better of the opening stages, Lancaster scored a goal out of the blue when Maddox misheaded a clearance to Whittaker who volleyed it superbly past Coburn from outside the box (19 mins). Carl Furlong was sent off after 41 minutes following a free-kick at which he was held down on the ground by Lancaster skipper Dean Martin's boot, applied to his neck. Furlong got up and poked Martin in the face. Martin compounded his crime by over-reacting and whilst Furlong cannot complain at his dismissal, Martin should have gone as well- but he was not even booked. The second half began with pandemonium. As the managers crossed the pitch to get to the dugouts, a fracas occurred near the centre-line with Alty coach Graham Heathcote having to be restrained in a confrontation with Martin. It appears that the Lancaster captain had spat in Graham's face to provoke the response from him. The ten-man Robins totally dominated the second half with a spirited performance but could only score once when substitute Kevin Hulme forced the ball home as keeper Thornley tried to clear inside the box (79 mins). The match official David Commins, a referees' instructor, had a dreadful game with a string of bizarre decisions. Another curious feature of this match was how it was staged at all without a single match steward appearing to be present to control a crowd of about 400. Altrincham are now seventh in the updated table.

Paul Taylor remained out of the side through injury and Rod Thornley was absent as masseur to the England side for their 5-1 thrashing of Germany tonight. Kevin Hulme failed a late fitness test and at the last minute was reduced to the bench, with Carl Furlong taking his place. This meant that Alty at least had one striker on the pitch as Poland was also named only as a sub. So, Furlong was supported up front by Ian Craney, playing in an unaccustomed forward position. However, Danny Murphy was fit enough to start and Stuart Coburn played despite a persistent ankle injury. Dave Swannick got his first call-up to the first-team bench. Lancaster were captained by Dean Martin in the absence of Kenny Mayers, whilst last year's tormentor of Alty, Colin Potts and new striker, Andy Whittaker were also in the "Dolly Blues" side.

The game got off to a nondescript start with abortive movements from each side, punctuated by throw-ins and fairly evenly distributed free-kicks for minor offences. The first chance of the game came to Altrincham when Adams and Murphy combined on the left and the ball came to Gallagher, inside the box, via Craney. Unfortunately Jason miskicked and the opening went begging (4 mins). Furlong was then successively kicked and clouted in the face by McMenemy's arm to earn a free-kick just outside the penalty area (5 mins). As Altrincham began to find their rhythm, Craney was bowled over in the box but Mr Commins showed no interest in awarding a penalty (6 mins). Another shout for a penalty came two minutes later when, from an Adams pass, Furlong got half round the keeper before going down inside the box, but he went to ground a little too easily to convince the referee of a foul (8 mins). Next, Steve Hawes, who had another fine game, intercepted the ball in midfield and his shot from 20 yards was not held by Thornley in the Lancaster goal, but a defender completed the clearance (11 mins). As a Lancaster move came to nothing the rain started to lash down, sweeping from the station end of the ground into the Blues' faces. Altrincham again threatened when Furlong rounded the keeper and put the ball into the net, after a pass from Murphy, but the ref. gave a free-kick in favour of defender Paul McMenemy rather than a goal (14 mins).

Before the game there were suspicions that Lancaster were in a false position as league leaders, as two of their four wins this season had come from last-minute winners and their 6-0 win at Burscough was against a side playing with only ten men for more than 75 minutes after the opposing keeper had been sent-off. City did little in this match to dispel such doubts as they struggled to put together many sustained moves. After 17 minutes Mr Commins gave one of many strange decisions, penalising Illingworth in midfield and the resulting free-kick led to some head tennis between the sides in the Alty box. Then, completely against the run of play, Lancaster went ahead. A long ball from the Lancaster half would have found Coburn but Maddox attempted to head it clear, some 25 yards from goal. The ball went to the right off his head, straight to Whittaker who showed why he had already scored seven goals this season by volleying it superbly past Coburn into the keeper's top right-hand corner (19 mins).

Alty were soon pressing for an equaliser and Thornley had to punch clear as Dean Martin and Carl Furlong tangled, not for the last time (20 mins). Mr Commins then got in a mess when a Craney pass to Furlong seemed to be handled by the Alty forward, but the ball went out of play. The ref missed the hand ball and awarded a corner before changing his mind and giving a goal-kick (22 mins). An Adams ball then set Furlong in on Thornley and as the keeper cleared Carl fell. Lancaster went down the other end and Welch beat Maddox but Whittaker failed to control his pass (26 mins). Maddox redeemed himself with two fine passes forward to the left in as many minutes but neither of the recipients, Adams and Murphy, could produce anything from them. Furlong was upended once more in the opposition box after Scott, Illingworth and Craney had combined but the ref had already blown for an offence of some kind against the visitors (28 mins). Lancaster showed some spark when a fine ball from Whittaker found Potts, but Scott stepped in to concede a corner on the Lancaster left. Mr Commins missed a clear foul on Hawes but did spot a Furlong offence against Kilbane (34 mins). Hawes and Craney combined well to get Murphy in on the keeper just inside the box but, with the net at his mercy, Danny could only slide the ball wide (36 mins).

Maddox nearly committed suicide with a short back pass aimed at Coburn and although Lancaster got in a shot at goal from the resulting melee, Coburn held it easily (37 mins). Then, almost immediately a much better back-pass by Sertori saw Coburn hesitate before clearing and Welch charged down his kick, but the ball ricocheted off for a goal-kick. Having had much the better of the game so far, Alty had now made three serious errors at the back. Furlong was awarded a free-kick 40 yards out and Kilbane conceded a corner from Hawes's kick (40 mins). Adams took the kick but Hawes was fouled by Potts, not for the first time, to give Alty a free-kick to the right of goal. Maddox attempted to back-head the free-kick at goal but it went well over the bar and as the players split up from the goalmouth melee, Furlong appeared to strike Martin, just in front of goal. However, what spectators saw but Mr Commins either did not or chose to ignore, was that Furlong's poke at Martin's face was prompted by the Lancaster captain putting his foot on the grounded Furlong's neck to stop him getting up. Dean Martin demonstrated the acting talents of his more famous singer/actor namesake and cavorted around holding his head. Mr Commins called over Furlong and after some debate, showed the Alty striker a red card. Whilst Furlong's retaliation could not be excused, Martin should also have walked. He was not even cautioned (41 mins). After play resumed, Hawes was brought down for at least the third time in the game and again no card was shown to the offender. Before the interval Lancaster won a corner and Alty a 35 yard free-kick for a foul on Murphy but the scored remained 1-0 at the interval.

The second half began with a strange sight. Alty sub Kevin Hulme walked to the dug-out wearing a pair of flip-flops, rather than boots, presumably to protect what was rumoured to be a blistered foot which had caused him to be dropped to the subs' bench for this game. But then pandemonium broke out as the coaching staff crossed the pitch to the dug-outs. Alty coach Graham Heathcote had to be manhandled away from Lancaster's Dean Martin in the centre of the pitch. Graham had walked out of the dressing rooms looking calm but something had clearly happened on the pitch; it emerged later that Dean Martin had (allegedly) spat at the Altrincham coach's face. Once again Mr Commins was not in control of the situation for his response was to lecture Heathcote and order him from the dug-out, whilst seeming to take no action against Martin- again. Both the sending off of Furlong and this incident seemed to fire up Altrincham and they went on to totally dominate the second half with Lancaster reduced to bit-part players.

In such a cauldron it was disconcerting to note that Lancaster did not appear to have a single ground safety steward on duty; certainly there was no one in a fluorescent jacket anywhere in the ground, nor anyone else who seemed to be in a position of authority. Sensibly the travelling fans reserved their anger for Mr Commins and the Lancaster captain and there was no hint of crowd trouble. Altrincham had a good chance five minutes after the belated start of the second half when Adams passed to Craney, whose cross was cleverly jumped over by Illingworth to set Scott free on the right edge of the Lancaster box. However, Scott was only able to shoot straight at the advancing Thornley. But Stuart Coburn then made an even better save at the other end when Potts's good ball for Welch allowed the footballing fireman to cross for Whittaker but Coburn saved his point-blank effort superbly (51 mins). After Thornley had taken an Adams cross off Murphy's head, the keeper made a hash of a clearance and Murphy picked up the ball 30 yards out. He passed forward to Craney who collected and turned, whilst being fouled by Kilbane. Mr Commins amazingly stopped play and gave Lancaster the free-kick. The rain continued to pour as Altrincham enjoyed the lion's share of possession and the Alty supporters continued to give their vocal support to the team from the uncovered terracing. Thornley had another unsteady moment when he dropped another Adams cross and from this error Alty won a corner (56 mins).

Hulme scores (picture by Alan Johnson - for more of Alan's pictures of the game, click here.

Potts fouled Hawes once more and once more escaped a booking as Altrincham continued to dominate the game. Altrincham brought on Lee Poland to replace Ian Craney, who had been playing out of position at the front end of the Altrincham team (60 mins). Almost immediately Poland went inches wide from scoring when he fired in a fierce low shot after beating McMenemy on the edge of the box. Suspicions that it would not be Alty's day continued when Murphy, Illingworth and keeper Thornley converged on a through ball only for the ball to emerge from the collision in a safe position for Lancaster. A bad back pass from Hawes did lead to a Lancaster corner but Coburn dealt with the kick easily (63 mins). Clitheroe now replaced Rigby for the hosts (64 mins), before a Welch foul on Scott again failed to draw Mr Commins to reach for his book. Poland added some fire to the Altrincham attack and it was only surprising that Alty had not yet scored so great was their degree of possession in the second half. It was certainly not evident that they were a man short. The one-way traffic stopped for Hulme to come on for Illingworth after 68 minutes and join Poland as the attacking force. After Hulme had won a throw in the right corner of the pitch, Lyons handled Hawes's cross but from the free-kick a shot from Adams was blocked. Once again the greatest risk to Alty came from their own mistakes at the back. Coburn came across to the touchline to clear but mis-kicked to an opponent, Fortunately Clitheroe's attempt to lob the keeper from 40 yards was poor. Maddox then mis-headed but Haddow shot wide. Normal service was resumed when Murphy chipped a ball into the box but the keeper just got to it before Poland. Hulme then got clear but was offside. Hulme came even closer after 76 minutes when Murphy slid past Kilbane on the left and the ball came to Hulme but his curling shot from 20 yards was easy-meat for the keeper.

Kevin Hulme; picture by Josh Easby
The one-sided half continued and Alty finally got their reward. A neat flick on from Poland, to his right, seemed to be covered by Martin but as the Lancaster man attempted to get the ball back to Thornley, Hulme charged in and the ball cannoned off the keeper onto Hulme and back into the net (78 mins). After the resumption Lyons fouled Murphy but when Poland chased a through ball and accidentally caught the keeper, the referee instantly booked the Altrincham man (79 mins). Far more worthy of the booking he received was Clitheroe who took Adams's legs away four minutes later. But when Hulme was knocked over in the box, it was normal service from Mr Commins as he ignored the incident. There was a scare then when Gallagher injured himself in a tackle in midfield but, after treatment, he resumed. Again Mr Commins made a strange decision as the ball had gone out for a Lancaster throw. Whilst Lyons waited to take the throw the ref demanded the ball from the Lancaster defender, who only gave it to him with a bad grace. Mr Commins then restarted play with a bounce up at an ill-defined point between where Gallagher went down and the touchline. Soon a Poland cross went low across the goalmouth with both Hulme and Maddox unable to connect. Then, with three minutes left, after Potts had yet again hacked down Hawes, Mr Commins belatedly booked him (87 mins). Potts and Adams collided soon afterwards and this prompted more incident of its own. After Alty physio Gary Thompson had treated Adams, Mr Commins then lectured Gary at length, presumably for coming on to the pitch before he had been asked. At some point in the final chaos Holliday had replaced Welch for Lancaster but the game ended soon afterwards as a 1-1 draw.

Despite playing with ten men, Altrincham showed tremendous spirit and would thoroughly have deserved to win today. Lancaster were very disappointing for a table-topping team and it will be surprising if they last the pace when they have played the top teams in the division. Altrincham dropped to seventh tonight but they played well enough to suggest that they are still contenders for the title. Hawes was excellent in midfield despite being on the wrong end of quite a few fouls. Sertori was solid at the back, but Maddox made more errors today than he had so far in all the games this season. Adams continues to impress at left-back and it was good to see Murphy back in action for 90 minutes. Poland made a difference when he came on and Hulme also made an impact.