Altrincham F.C. Youth Team: Match Report.

Bolton & District N.W. Youth Alliance Open Cup Semi-Final Match played at Burscough F.C. on Wednesday 10 April, 2002.

Altrincham made three changes from the side which defeated Lancaster recently. Centre-back Steve McGrath had a back strain so could not play whilst striker David Walsh was also carrying a knock and started on the bench. Mario Daniel started instead of Steve Lunt whilst Mark Drew and Michael Bailey came back into the starting line-up in place of Walsh and McGrath respectively. Vernum Rowland was ruled out as he is now in the first team squad and, indeed, was named Man of the Match last Tuesday against Runcorn.

After a fraught road journey caused by road chaos the Alty team nevertheless arrived in time for their second semi-final of the season. The game got off to a quiet start until Jordan Broxson made a fine save after a quarter of an hour when he dealt expertly with a one-on-one situation. This seemed to kick-start the Alty team and they started harrying their opponents well.

As a result, a defender was forced into a back-pass which the Marine keeper handled. From within the box, 15 yards out, Paul Tilley laid the ball off to his right to Mark Drew who blasted it home (25 mins). Altrincham now dominated the next quarter of an hour and got their reward when Lee Shillito scored a second goal for Alty (37 mins). The Robins saw out the remainder of the half without any alarms.

Marine came out strongly for the second half and, after a goal mouth melee, the ball broke kindly from an Alty defender's tackle and ran to an opponent, who scored (60 mins). The game now went through a physical phase and Marine conceded a number of free-kicks. From one of these, some 30 yards out to the left of goal, Lee McDonald sent a screamer into the net to make it 3-1 (70 mins). Alty then made a change, with Steve Lunt replacing Mario Daniel, who had already played part of a game for Wright Robinson College that afternoon.

David Walsh then came on for Lee Thompson to add more fresh legs up front. Altrincham held on comfortably to their 3-1 lead to qualify for their second Cup Final of the season. The opposition in the Final will be Prestwich Heys, in a repeat of last year's final. The provisional date for this is Sunday, 5 May at a venue to be decided. This was a fine team performance and Alty's eighth consecutive victory.