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.
For the second weekend running, we performed really well in the glare of the TV cameras at Bromley on Saturday.
The early kick-off did not prevent us starting the game on the front foot and we played some very nice stuff during the first 20 minutes and fully deserved to take the lead when a terrific cross from Ryan Crowther was met by a perfect leap and glancing header from Damian Reeves… he’s not the tallest striker around but he still gets his fair share of headed goals.
Bromley responded immediately and for the rest of the half, we had to weather some heavy pressure, which eventually told as they equalised with a goal that, like the second goal at Macclesfield, had an element of misfortune about it from our point of view, as Moses Emmanuel’s shot deflected off Scott Leather and over Tim Deasy, who performed heroically to make a save but not before the ball had gone over the line.
I think that most Bromley fans probably thought that they would go on and win it in the second half but two goals in quick succession knocked the stuffing out of them, and while they made mistakes at the back, we seized on the opportunities superbly.
Josh O’Keefe put his away perfectly, and all you can say about the third goal is, it was typical Damian Reeves. It was poaching at its best, sensing an opening, latching on to it and dinking a clever finish over the keeper and we ran out 3-1 winners.
You can watch highlights of the game here – forward to 12min 55sec in
Tim Deasy won the man of the match award and people are saying some of Tim’s saves are the sort Stuart Coburn makes, and there can be no greater accolade. Stuart was often credited with safeguarding or even winning points for us, and now Tim is doing the same, so there are similarities between them.
Despite the fact that the game was live on BT Sport, we still had about 60 or 70 travelling support who gave the players superb vocal encouragement in pretty poor weather conditions.
I believe there were also about 150 people watching on the big screens in the Community Sports Hall back at our ground and I am sure that they enjoyed the team’s display as much as we did down in Kent.
We must seem like an enigma to many people, who must wonder how we are 19th in the league when we can go and achieve results like that against the highest goalscorers in the Vanarama National League.
We have to do the same now on Saturday against Boreham Wood, who have been on our tails since we played them in September. It’s our last home league game before Christmas and a very big game for both teams. Victory for them would see them go above us on goal difference, whilst three points for us would put us six points ahead of the Hertfordshire side.
