Altrincham 4 Witton 1

FA 3rd Round Qualifier

13 October 2001

Summary by John Laidlar a full report can be found in the Official site

Altrincham achieved their first ever FA Cup win over Witton today and netted £10,000 in prize money in the process. They ultimately ran out comfortable winners after Witton had started promisingly. A superbly executed free-kick routine saw Murphy head Alty ahead (19 mins) before a controversial penalty awarded against Hawes allowed Rendell to score from the spot (32 mins). Almost immediately Furlong was scythed down for Thornley to put Alty ahead again from the spot (34 mins). After 64 minutes a fine move ended with Hawes scoring and Poland made it 4-1 when he turned superbly and shot past Price, who got a hand to the ball (84 mins). Kevin Hulme was Man of the Match in a game watched by a respectable attendance of 841, compared with a Conference crowd today at Northwich of under 700.

Danny Murphy started the game at the expense of Stuart Locke, who was on the bench alongside Gallagher, Illingworth, Poland and the ex-Hyde keeper, Kurt Edginton, who took over from Dale Newbrook, the Reserves' keeper, who kept goal on Tuesday night in the UniBond Cup and was presumably instead in action for the Reserves at Ossett Town today. Despite last Wednesday's resignation of Witton manager Eddie Bishop, influential midfielder Charlie Boyd, who had previously refused to play in Bishop's absence, was in the Albion team. Ex-Alty men David Anane and Michael Garrity also started but another ex-Robin, Lee Cox, was not in evidence. The referee was Stephen Brand, who also officiated in our match against Northwich in the Cheshire Senior Cup. The assistant referees were both, curiously, called Mr D. Richardson

	Lee Poland presenting the match Certificate to Alex Pearson representing match Sponsor 20/Twenty Research
	Lee Poland presenting the match ball to Mr. & Mrs. Stuart representing match Ball Sponsor Kevin Guiney

	Sorry mate. Carl  Furlong trips Danny Murphy
	Danny Murphy heads into the net, for Alty's first goal A despairing Greg Price watches the ball go into the net
At the other end Carl Rendall sends Stuart Coburn the wrong way from the penalty spot to equalise
	Witton's Mark Styles brings down Carl Furlong in the penalty box and the referee Mr. S R Brand had no hesitation in awarding a penalty and agreeing  with the supporters in the stand
	Rod Thornley turns away after converting the penalty
	A prayer meeting or a heated discussion resulting from a coming together of Witton's Dave Heywood and Kevin Hulme
Neil Morley brings down Carl Furlong after the latter had beaten Greg Price and was on his way goal wards. There was much disbelief for the Alty fans (and Witton,s?) when the referee did not award a penalty
	Carl Furlong in action again
	Action on and off the pitch as Carl Furlong and Ian Craney attack the Witton goal

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