Match Report

SUMMARY

Altrincham moved up to third by virtue of Stalybridge's postponed fixture and a point gleaned from this match, in which the performance improved as the game progressed. A revamped side, which included debutant Danny Murphy, Mark Ward's new signing from Mossley, took some time to settle. Indeed, Leek took the lead after only four minutes when Marrow scored from a fine cross from the right by Harris, after an Altrincham move had foundered with Scheuber just inside the Leek half.

Altrincham had far the better of the second half and Danny Murphy equalised on 56 minutes, finishing off a cross from Scott from the right with a header from close range. Despite a change of front-men, with Landon and Furlong replacing Hay and Power, the winner would not come. This was a better performance than on Sunday but the result is still a case of two points lost, against a team who were 18th, rather than one gained.

Once again Altrincham fans had a new formation to consider with the striking and full-back pairs both being new combinations. Adam Farley gave way to Gary Scott at right-back, where his partner was Steve Porter, whilst up front, Phil Power came in to join Alex Hay. By the end of the game the front duo had been replaced by Landon and Furlong. Leroy Chambers, who had played as substitute on Sunday, was not in the squad for this game. With such an unsettled team and one which also lacked the injured Kevin Ellison for the first time in a League match this season it took some time for Altrincham to settle. Ellison was at the ground but was having to use crutches to hobble round. Adam Farley was reduced to the bench. For their part, Leek fielded the newly signed Mark Gardiner, the recently sacked Northwich Vics manager, at left-back.

That this match took place at all was a tribute to Alty groundsman, Peter Barry, who overcame days of incessant and torrential rain to produce a pitch which was like Wembley compared with the Butcher's Arms ground where the team played last Sunday against Droylsden. Only one area had excessive surface water but even in that part of the pitch the ball did not play untruly. The rain held off for the entire 90 minutes and the decision to go ahead with the fixture was the right one. The cold temperature, however, reminded the spectators that winter is not far away.

With their untried formation it was perhaps not surprising that Altrincham fell behind after just four minutes. Nevertheless, it was disappointing to concede a goal to the division's joint lowest scorers so early on. Having kicked off towards the Golf Road end, Altrincham had only had time to get in a 25-yard shot from Hawes (2 mins) which went wide of the keeper's left post before they went behind. However between this shot and the goal, Leek had delivered a warning with a break up the left and a good cross which Coburn tidied up. The goal came when Scheuber was shepherded up a blind alley just inside the Leek half and in attempting to lay the ball off to his left, lost possession. James Marrow both started and finished the move; his initial good ball to Darren Twigg came to Paul Harris on the right wing. He checked inside on to his left foot and curled in an excellent cross which Marrow finished off neatly near the far post, with Coburn having no chance of saving the day (4 mins).

Although Alex Hay won a corner shortly afterwards (6 mins), Leek had their best spell of the game after the goal. Marrow's strong physique was proving difficult for the physically less robust Altrincham midfield and defence and his colleagues were combining well in passing movements which belied their lowly league position. Altrincham were decidedly on the back foot until a Porter-Craney move allowed a shot from Power which was both wide and offside (9 mins). Phil Power nearly got some profit when he charged down a clearance by Hawtin but, fortunately for the Leek defender, the ball rebounded off Power to the keeper, Statham. Glendenning then played the ball to Power who laid it off for Hay and the ball came off a defender for an Altrincham corner.

Although Statham remained rooted to his line, a defensive colleague headed the corner clear (11 mins). Hay and Power showed one or two nice touches but they were not able to threaten the Leek goal at this stage, though the home team were now beginning to get back in the game. As for the new boys, Gary Scott looked far more composed in his normal right-back slot than he had seemed in midfield at Droylsden where he had a very disappointing game and was substituted after fifty minutes. Danny Murphy had an understandably quiet opening spell on his debut.

Murphy began to come life, with a nice interception, just before he was flattened whilst making an aerial challenge in midfield (19 mins). However, Hawes's free-kick from the right was cleared. It was then Scott's turn to break up a move with a superb tackle as Paul Harris and a team-mate threatened to get free (22 mins). The subsequent corner came to nothing for Leek before Porter's ball to Scheuber resulted in a 20-yard shot wide of the target (23 mins). After Scott had won a throw, his cross-ball was caught by Statham in the air, with Alex Hay being flattened in the process (25 mins). Power then headed a Scott cross well over the bar, but he was also offside once again (26 mins) before Scheuber lost possession, not for the first time. The young midfielder has skill but his passing can be weak and being of slender build, he can be harried off the ball. However, he does not hide when things go wrong and continued to work hard throughout the game.

After good work by Marrow, a subsequent Leek cross from the left found the visitors' attack offside. At the other end, Hay gained possession after the keeper had punched a cross clear but the Altrincham number nine's left-foot cross was too long for Danny Murphy, who had now moved across from the right to the left wing (30 mins). An uncharacteristic lapse by Talbot saw possession lost and Porter was consequently drawn into a foul tackle on Twigg to stop the danger. Sandeman's free-kick, from 25 yards out on the right, found Harris but he was unable to capitalise on the space that he had found and the ball came through to Coburn. After Hawes and Craney had moved on Coburn's clearance, Porter's cross was disappointing but the ball fell for Hay, then Hawes.

Possession was then lost and in trying to retrieve it, Scheuber went down in pain on the edge of the Leek box (32 mins) After treatment for Scheuber, Power had a shot blocked and Scott won a corner from which Craney's effort was blocked for another flag-kick. This one, from Hawes, was too low in trajectory and was cleared. It was not long, however, before Altrincham's increasing pressure led to a blocked shot from Scheuber, which was set up by Power (35 mins). Scheuber was in the wars again when he was flattened in the centre circle but he recovered to play on a ball from Hawes and Porter to Murphy, who was halted by a fine tackle on the by-line from Sandeman (35 mins).

At this stage, James Glendenning seemed to be troubled by his left ankle but play continued as Hawes and Scott attempted to set up Murphy but an Altrincham throw in midfield was the only outcome. Scheuber, Hawes and Scott then combined to let in Power but his header was very much wide of the target. In the right-hand corner, Alex Hay produced some skill to make an opening but his cross did not match his preparatory work (39 mins). After a foul on Glendenning, Coburn took the kick and Hawes nodded it on but Statham reached this flick before Power.

A flowing move following a throw by Porter and involving Power, Hawes and Scheuber ended in a blocked shot from Hawes. The shot of the game came soon after when Ian Craney really got hold of the ball from 25 yards but his goal-bound shot was beaten out, came back to Power whose shot was also blocked and then arrived in the air for Hay. From a position near the left-hand post Hay failed to hit the target with his header and the ball went over the bar (43 mins) when a goal had seemed the likely outcome. Leek had another escape before the interval when a corner by Hawes, won by Murphy, was fumbled by Statham but the keeper fell on the loose ball at the second attempt (44 mins). The referee soon blew for half-time without adding any time for the first-half stoppages.

Leek's first move of the second half was halted when Coburn advanced to reach the ball just ahead of Marrow, before Statham reciprocated at the Leek end, gathering a cross after a deflected long-shot from Hawes (47 mins). After Scheuber had done well to keep the ball in play by the Leek by-line, a defender appeared to handle the ball in the penalty area but the referee was right to view it as accidental. After a Hawes cross, Murphy could only direct a tame header at Statham as he was under pressure from a defender. Gary Scott continued to show his good form of the first half and won a throw which led to a move encompassing Scheuber, Hawes and Power which was terminated by Wilkes's intervention.

There followed several minutes of unproductive movements; first from Leek and then two from the home side which ended with Murphy and Scheuber respectively being dispossessed. The game lacked flow at this point and things got worse when the referee stopped play to lecture Porter for a foul (52 mins); although the card was not obvious Porter was apparently booked. Then after Leek's free-kick had come to naught, Hawes played an unusually poor ball forward which bisected Power and Hay. Things improved slightly when Power, Murphy and Hawes combined, the move ending with Hawes's swivel and shot from 15 yards out, a ball which the keeper saved comfortably, diving to his left (53 mins). After selling a nice dummy Glendenning sadly gave the ball away to Hawtin who, in turn fed Twigg. However, his shot from the right was poor and went across rather than towards goal. A Hawes cross then beat the keeper at the other end but evaded his team-mates too before Altrincham finally got it right and scored an excellent equaliser. Gary Scott went up the right wing and got in a fine cross towards the far post where Murphy headed it cleanly into the net in a move which recalled Leek's goal (56 minutes).

Altrincham were not immediately able to build on the momentum of the equaliser because of a double substitution and then two injuries which required treatment. Landon and Furlong came on to replace Hay and Power as the strike force as soon as the goal was scored. The first of the injuries was to Glendenning and the second to Murphy, who had been crudely obstructed. When play finally resumed Murphy latched on to Scheuber's pass but his shot from the edge of the box was at the goalkeeper (58 mins).

Murphy, invigorated by his goal, was soon involved again but his pass to Furlong ended in a defensive clearance from Leek. After Twigg had barged Scott off the ball and not been penalised, Callan played the ball on to Wilkes who won a corner when Scheuber was unable to hack clear from the by-line. Twigg met the corner from the left with a full-blooded header from close range but Coburn made a magnificent one-handed reflex save, tipping the ball over for another corner (60 mins). The keeper had a simpler catch to make directly from the second corner. Leek were now back in the game after being under the cosh for most of the second half but Hawes carried the fight to the other end when his 25-yarder required a good save from Statham (62 mins). But, after a few more minutes of routine action, even Hawes miscontrolled the ball by the touchline to underline Altrincham's lack of impetus after the boost of the equaliser. Following a winning tackle by Scheuber, Scott's cross was weakly hit as he attempted to confuse the defence.

However, things improved when Murphy fed Furlong who was knocked or fell over in the box (68 mins) before Hawes's fine ball forward to Landon resulted in a cross cum shot, which a Leek defender headed firmly just wide of his own net. The corner which followed was punched out to Hawes and went off Furlong for a goal-kick (69 mins). Scott and Furlong combined well by the touchline, with Hawtin catching Furlong after the ball had gone but the referee did not spot this. As Altrincham regained their dominance Porter put a speculative long shot over the bar and then Scott found Furlong in an advanced position to the right of goal. Furlong controlled it well and in the same movement lashed a firm shot cum cross which went across the face of goal from a tight angle (71 mins).

Leek were largely penned in their own half until Marrow beat Scott in the air and set up Twigg, whose cross was held by Coburn. Scott did better moments later when his ball to Scheuber led to a corner on the right (74 mins). Nothing came of this but after another impressive tackle by Scheuber, Scott passed to Murphy, now back on the right wing. From here the ball went via Craney and Hawes, on to Furlong, who returned it to Scott before a good turn and shot by Scheuber resulted in a corner. At this point play stopped for Murphy to receive treatment for cramp (76 mins). Statham punched the corner weakly clear.

In a rare incursion upfield Harris and Marrow broke forward, before Porter fouled the latter and received a lecture from the referee. Given his earlier booking he was fortunate to receive such leniency. Marrow needed prolonged treatment; at one stage he got up then collapsed down again (78 mins). As Mr Wilman seemed to be averse to adding on any injury time, this delay was not helpful to Altrincham but more painful for Marrow. Even Wilkes seemed to be put off by the long stoppage for his free-kick from 28 yards hit the letter "S" on the South Trafford College advert on top of the Golf Road enclosure.

After a free-kick for a foul on Scott (80 mins) Marrow was replaced by Dave Sutton for Leek (81 mins). From a deep position Hawes, the initiator of most of Altrincham's best moments, played the ball wide to Scott who relayed it forward to Scheuber. He beat Whittaker and got in a good cross which was cleared off the line. After Murphy had fouled Statham, Leek started playing for the final whistle, simply hacking clearances aimlessly forward and not committing much at the front end of their team. Sutton's attempted break was stifled by Glendenning before he got beyond the half-way line (85 mins). The same player had more success two minutes later when a move initiated by him and Twigg ended in a high cross which, for once, Stuart Coburn needed two attempts to hold.

Scott soon played a ball to Landon whose cross was only half-cleared to Hawes on the penalty area's edge. Hawes's shot was a few feet over the bar. A silly foul by Craney, right in front of the referee, gave Leek the respite of a free-kick 35 yards from goal on their left. Gardiner's kick found Harris, then Sutton before going out for a corner. Showing no ambition to win the game, Leek took an ultra short corner as Gardiner and Sutton simply tried to waste time by the flag. Eventually Sutton fouled Scott and Coburn's freekick to Glendenning finally came back to Scott, who had advanced upfield, and his good cross won a corner on the right. Hawes's corner was cleared before Mr Wilman blew for full-time.

To most people's surprise, Stuart Scheuber was named as Man of the Match. In fact, after receiving his champagne, the young midfielder left the pitch shaking his head and saying "I don't know how I won this"! To be fair, after a first-half in which his passing was frequently flawed, Scheuber worked hard in the second period and got in some good tackles and turns. Although things were not going for him, he did not give up and for that he deserved at least some recompense. Most of the home crowd would probably have given the award - once again- to Steve Hawes though the underemployed Stuart Coburn was as usual in wonderful form when needed. Whilst the loss of two home points to one of the division's more lowly placed teams is disappointing, it was perhaps to be expected from a line-up which is still not settled because of changing personnel and injuries.

Gary Scott played very well in his true position at right-back, after something of a nightmare in midfield at Droylsden. His forward movement and ability to cross a ball were features generally lacking in the side in recent games. Danny Murphy had a good game too, particularly in the second half, most of which he spent on the left. Up front, however, Mark Ward is still ringing the changes to find the best combination. As for the invalids, Kevin Ellison looks unlikely to be fit for a while, but Jason Gallagher is thought to be playing tonight for the Reserves whilst Eddie Turkington, Mark Maddox and Mark Ward are hopefully on the mend. A home game against Spennymoor on Saturday ought to be the recipe for a return to winning ways and, hopefully, a step towards finding a truly settled side: twenty-six players have, so far, made League appearances for Altrincham this season.