Thanks again to Rory Sheehan who will be providing match reports and feature articles
Wrexham 0 Altrincham 1
Part-time Altrincham humiliated Wrexham by inflicting a 1-0 home defeat on the Dragons and fully deserved their win. In truth, ‘Alty’ wanted it more even if they were more limited technically and in their approach play.
The game had a typical end-of-season felt to it as Dean Saunders left out the likes of Jefferson Louis, and handed a senior debut to 18 year-old goalkeeper Chris Maxwell amongst other changes. Altrincham included ex-Reds star Marc McGregor in their line-up.
The early stages were a poor advert for the BSP as neither side looked particularly impressive. On quarter of an hour Andrew Crofts saw his header from a set-piece cleared off the line. That was pretty much as close as either side came to breaking the deadlock.
Silvio Spann did put a shot just over the bar later on, and anything hard-working Altrincham mustered to test Maxwell, the youngster dealt with comfortably. It was no surprise that the scoreline remained 0-0 at the break.
Into the second period and there was still an alarming lack of hunger and urgency from Wrexham, which began to frustrate the Racecourse faithful. This was intensified of 51 minutes when Altrincham took the lead out of nothing.
A long ball forward from Matt Doughty was headed over Maxwell as Aurelien Collin and Greg Young both attacked it. Though Young might claim it, it looked suspiciously like a Collin own goal. Either way, it was another crass goal to concede, similar to many that have gone before, and put the Dragons in a situation they should never have been in.
Three quick-fire substitutions were made as to inject some life into the Wrexham side. Michael Proctor replaced Spann, Jamie McCluskey replaced Wes Baynes and Neil Taylor took over from Sam Williamson.
A chance did fall to Proctor in the area but he dithered in trying to get the ball under control letting the Altrincham defence dispossess him as an opening went begging. From a corner, Mansour Assoumani’s goalbound header was deflected just wide by an ‘Alty’ defender.
It wasn’t all Wrexham as Altrincham looked to hit the Dragons on the break, Chris Maxwell having to close down Chris Denham after his defence had left him woefully exposed. The chances of the Reds grabbing an equaliser were made more remote when they were reduced to 10 men.
With just over 5 minutes to go Assoumani was involved in a tussle with Denham away from play which led to Denham going over. After consulting with his assistant, the referee showed Assoumani the red card to complete an already miserable afternoon for Wrexham fans.
Into the four minutes of stoppage-time added on, Altrincham were put under pressure but really, Wrexham didn’t look like scoring. Another disappointingly small home crowd left the Racecourse frustrated and disillusioned again as our sorry season crawls to an end.
Dean Saunders must know he has his work cut out in putting together a side capable of lifting us out of non-league obscurity next season. Even more difficult judging by performances and results of the last few months, is convincing the fans that he’s the man to see the job out…
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