Altrincham FC manager Lee Sinnott gives us the inside track on the Robins’ progress this season in the Vanarama National League. Here’s his latest column for Altrincham Today.
Two games have been and gone since my last column and both games have seen us take on sides pushing for promotion to the Football League. The first of those took place last Saturday, when we travelled to Wrexham on the back on our victory against Cheltenham seven days earlier.
Wrexham are a very good team and I believe they won’t be far off those automatic promotion spots at the end of the season. They had a big home crowd backing them, but saying that we hung on in there and created a big chance to take the lead in the first half. Unfortunately we couldn’t take that chance and paid the price for it.
I was pleased with our character to come back in the second half and pull a goal back through Michael Rankine. But Wrexham made great use of their big pitch and put the game to bed soon after to win 3-1. The match could have been so much different if we took the lead but when you aren’t clinical in front of goal then that’s what happens.
Three days later and we were back at the J Davidson stadium to play a very strong Eastleigh side. They had a few injuries but it’s a testament to their strength when they could still field a team with such good players. Saying that we stood up to them well and it was a fantastic strike by James Lawrie to take the lead despite us not being at our best in first half.
The second half we were better and had the chances to take a two-goal cushion. James missed a good opportunity and he’ll feel hard on himself that he didn’t put it away. Eastleigh punished us with the equalizer and obviously it was disappointing for them to score the goal so late on. We had bodies back but we had a little switch off and that can cost you as it did in the end.
Our next two fixtures see one home and one away match. The first of those games comes this Saturday at home to Braintree Town. We have two points more than we did at this stage of the season last year and hopefully we can increase that with three more points on Saturday to keep our strong home form going. I hope to see you there, as always your support is crucial and much appreciated!
Pictures: Michael Ripley
