Altrincham FC manager Lee Sinnott will be giving us the inside track on the Robins’ return to the Conference. Here’s his latest column for Altrincham Today.
I felt that a draw would have been a fair outcome last Saturday when we went out of the FA Trophy at the last 16 stage at Bath City.
They made more chances in the game and scored a very good goal late on and we paid the penalty for not doing well enough in the final third of the pitch.
We were the better side in the first half but just didn’t do enough with the ball and eventually we were undone by a great delivery from a free kick that was met with an equally good header.
Below: Bath’s winner against the Robins in the FA Trophy
We weren’t dynamic enough and at times gave the ball away too cheaply. Overall, we didn’t have enough quality in our game and our crossing into the penalty area was poor – too often we didn’t clear the first man.
This was not a repeat of the very poor performances that we have put in at both Trafford and Blyth to go out of the FA Cup in the last two seasons – some people may not agree with that – but in my view last Saturday was quite different.
We started the game the better of the two sides and if we had been anywhere near our ‘A’ game we would have scored. Good luck to Bath though, who now travel to Dover in the quarter final next week… ironically meaning that our league game down in Kent will have to be rearranged, probably meaning a long trip down to Dover for a midweek game in March.
We have 15 league games to play, starting with the visit of Aldershot Town on Saturday. On the first day of the season, we lost 3-1 at their place and looking back at that game, we have made good progress since then and I cannot fault the players in terms of the season as a whole, they have done very well, unfortunately we just couldn’t get our game to ignite at Bath.
Below: A snow-covered Moss Lane on Thursday
Hopefully, the Aldershot game will go ahead, despite the fact that the pitch is currently covered in snow. With a bit of luck, the pitch will not freeze underneath and we can continue our good recent run of form in the league.
As I have already mentioned, we have a blank Saturday next week, so it’s important that the Aldershot game goes ahead, otherwise we will have a 17-day gap between last Saturday’s game and our trip to Macclesfield on February 10th.
