Altrincham FC manager Lee Sinnott will be giving us the inside track on the Robins’ return to the Conference. Here’s his first column for Altrincham Today.
Five games into the new season in a new league and apart from the opening day defeat at Aldershot, you can argue we should have taken something from each of the other four games, yet we just have three points from the win over Bristol Rovers.
I’m not quite sure how we didn’t win at Southport on Saturday and there is a case for saying we merited some reward against Gateshead on Bank Holiday Monday.
The message is, we’ve got to take chances when they come along and we can’t give away soft goals. That applies at any level, but, as we are finding out, it’s more relevant than ever in this division.
So there were strong words to the players at the end. It needed saying, but I do believe in them, really I do. The football we are playing is good, and we will get better at it as we go along. But there are certain things you need to do at any level, and that is what I picked them up on.
There were strong words to the players at the end. It needed saying, but I do believe in them, really I do.
”Altrincham
It was a wonderful header for their goal, but it came from our possession needlessly breaking down and then one or two people getting caught a little bit out of position.
It was the same at Southport, where we put so much in but were caught out by a set-piece at the end. We know we’ve got to stop crosses coming in as much as we can and stop conceding needless free-kicks.
I gave a debut to Dave Parton in goal, who responded with some assured handling and a fine reflex save near the end, when we were pushing for an equaliser and found ourselves a bit stretched. There is no issue for me about the goalkeeping position, because both Dave and Stuart Coburn have a big part to play for us this season. I view each and every player exactly the same way. The keeper is just as important as the centre-half, centre-forward or any position you want to mention. The thinking was simply that I wanted to have a look at Dave and see what he brings to the team. I know what Stuart is all about, but I thought it would be good for Dave to get a game under his belt and see how he coped.
He had no chance with the goal, but he can be happy with how he dealt with everything else. He took his chance well.
Mike Williams (abductor), Nicky Clee (calf) and Ryan Crowther (shin) should be available for Saturday’s trip to Nuneaton, so that should give me more selection options than I had for the Bank Holiday weekend games.
