Altrincham 2 Blyth Spartans 1 

UniBond Premier League

Saturday 20 October 2001

Summary by John Laidlar

For a full report go to the Official site run by John Laidlar

BACKGROUND
Almost a year to the day since their last visit to Moss Lane (on 21 October 2001), Blyth arrived at Moss Lane having lost just one away game in the league this season, but lying five places below Altrincham in ninth place. In 2000, Alty won 3-1 before 622 spectators; today 741 fans watched the game.
SUMMARY

After playing some good football and seemingly coasting to an easy win, a deflection off Mark Sertori gave Blyth a goal after 77 mins from Carl Pepper and made the closing stages more uncomfortable than they should have been. Alty took the lead after 13 minutes when Kevin Hulme, replacing the ill Steve Hawes as captain, finished off a free-kick move. Thornley was bowled over in the box to earn a penalty, which he himself converted to make it 2-0 after 42 minutes. Danny Murphy was a deserved Man of the Match but there were quite a few good performances from his team-mates, too.

TEAM NEWS

Injury doubts about Gallagher, Furlong and Coburn proved unfounded with the latter two starting the game and Gallagher on the bench. However, captain Steve Hawes was an unexpected absentee, with flu, so Kevin Hulme captained the side for the first time. With the departure of Jeremy Illingworth to Stocksbridge Park Steels last week and the continued absence of Paul Taylor, all the other outfield members of the first team squad were involved today. Danny Murphy came back into the side which had drawn in the last league game, at Accrington. Chris Adams played on the left side of midfield, with Stuart Locke at left-back, whilst Murphy operated on the right flank. For Blyth, Craig Skelton, who figured on the Alty bench during our last Conference season, was in that position again for his team today.

Jason Gallagher presents the match ball to Raffi Bohne who was celebrating his 11th birthday with a party  as  the match ball sponsor.
Struggles in front of the Blyth goal with keeper Paul Gilmore at the ready
Physio Gary Thompson is at times one of the busiest man in the Club. Here Rod Thornley  is treated by Gary.
Is it a race?
Just over the top
I do not give Alty's defense a fair crack of the whip as I tend to go to the opposition's end to try to catch some some dramatic goal scoring shots. This afternoon I stayed at the Golf Road end to take some pictures of the defense

The defense move forward after repulsing a Blyth attack
The defense in action
Man of the Match Danny Murphy receives his award from Stan and Isobel Riley, who represented SAFE the Match Sponsor

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