We made a lot of changes for Tuesday night’s Cheshire Senior Cup game against 1874 Northwich, who play at Winsford United’s ground, and the lads gave me exactly what I asked for… a professional performance in a fairly comfortable 2-0 victory that sees us make progress into the quarter-finals of the County Cup.
I was very unhappy with the horrific first half tackle by Kyle Riley on Sean Densmore and he was rightly shown a red card.
I played JJ (John Johnston) as he has found the pitches difficult in recent matches and I was very pleased that he got the confidence boost of scoring with a terrific strike to set us on our way early in the second half and Tom Peers chipped in with another goal to seal the game with about a quarter of an hour to go.
Today, it’s back to the main goal of trying to win the Evo-Stik Premier and we travel down the M6 to take on Stafford Rangers, who beat us 3-0 at our place on the opening day of the season… I wasn’t happy with that at all and we certainly have a score to settle with a club that, like Altrincham, is a big name in non-league football.
Stafford Rangers versus Altrincham is a game that grabs the imagination and I can’t wait for three o’clock this afternoon. I am sure that we will have another big following, like we did last Saturday, when the fans were immense and really helped get us over the line at Farsley Celtic in a tight encounter where Jordan Hulme’s goal turned out to be the only one of the game.
I was delighted with the performance of the players and the magnificent vocal support of the fans. Our away form has been excellent in recent times and we will be looking to make it six wins on the bounce on our travels in the league!
We need to check on Connor Hampson (groin strain) and Tom Hannigan ahead of today’s game but we will definitely have the personnel available to field a very strong side this afternoon and I’d like to think that we can maintain our strong lead at the top of the table.
Photos: Michael Ripley
