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.
Hopefully, we will be at our Sunday best for this weekend’s game at Welling, which is being broadcast live on BT Sport 1.
It’s the first time that we have been featured on BT Sport’s coverage of The Vanarama Conference and I do hope that we continue to perform well, but more importantly, we need to return to winning ways, having only gained a single point from the last four games against Macclesfield Town, Forest Green Rovers, Bristol Rovers and Barnet.
All of those teams are in the top five of the league and it is almost certain that one, and probably two of them will be plying their trade in the Football League come August.
It’s been so frustrating to play well in all four games but end up losing three of them. Last Saturday, at home to Barnet, we were down to 10 men in the fifth minute when Tom Marshall was shown a red card for a foul that denied a goal scoring opportunity.
Once the referee decided that there was contact and pointed to the spot, I knew immediately that Tom was heading for a very early bath.
There was a lot of focus on the referee’s performance and having given the early penalty to Barnet, it was very frustrating that we didn’t get a quick chance to equalise when Damian Reeves appeared to be fouled in the area.
Having conceded a bad goal following a free kick, we had the perfect chance to get back into the game with the last kick of the half, when Simon Richman was fouled by Bondz N’Gala, who had already been booked. Mr Coy decided not to show a second yellow card to the Barnet centre back and Nicky Clee fired over from the penalty spot, to complete a half where we had played well, but all the key moments had gone against us.
Highlights from the defeat at Barnet:
I told the players at half-time that at 2-0 down, a man short, having missed a penalty and with a referee who wasn’t having a particularly good day, it would be easy to feel sorry for ourselves.
The way they responded in the second half was really pleasing and within four minutes, we had halved the deficit. We then asked quite a few questions of Martin Allen’s side, but the game got away from us again when we conceded a really bad goal around the hour mark.
In the end, playing a man light for almost 90 minutes was too big a setback to overcome, but the players gave a really good account of themselves, whilst it has to be said that we were guilty of poor defending at key moments.
John Akinde has been a real handful to deal with in the two games against the Londoners, scoring four goals, including three penalties and Michael Gash has now also scored four against us – for three different teams – this season (Kidderminster, Nuneaton and Barnet)!
Because Sunday’s match has a 1pm kick-off, we will be travelling down on Saturday and staying overnight to prepare properly for the game. Welling are on a bad run at the moment, but I am not expecting anything easier than our recent games against teams at the top end of the table – particularly as they have a new manager in charge.
Because of the travelling distance, early kick-off time and the fact that the game is on television, we probably won’t have as many travelling supporters as normal, but I know that a lot of Alty fans will be watching in the new Community Sports Hall, where our club catering manager, Richie Bentley, is laying on full English breakfasts from 11.30am.
As well as Tom Marshall (suspended for two games), we will also be without Nicky Clee, who has a sore hamstring, sustained in training on Tuesday night.
I think that Neil Tolson (assistant manager) and I have probably got the perfect faces for radio, but I do hope that we can give all Alty fans a win to cheer and a performance to be proud of, in front of the TV cameras on Sunday afternoon.
Pictures: Barnet’s N’Gala climbs all over Kyle Perry to win the ball (below), Damian Reeves gets goal side of his defender (bottom), and (top) Reeves has an attempt on goal after a quickly taken free kick (Michael Ripley)
