Altrincham 3 Spaulding United 2
FA Trophy 1st Round Replay
6 November 2001
Summary by John Laidlar - a full report is on the Official Site also by John Laidlar
Altrincham had the better of this Trophy replay but allowed a sometimes rugged Spalding side to make the result closer than it should have been. Rod Thornley opened the scoring (10 mins) with a neat finish to a Murphy cross but Spalding equalised when Stevenson got the better of Maddox (38 mins). Alty regained the lead when Sertori headed home from a corner (43 mins). However, Williams equalised after 65 minutes before Rod Thornley got clear and his diagonal shot got past the keeper's hand into the far corner (76 mins).
Alty's patched-up squad tonight lacked Kevin Hulme and Jason Gallagher, who were injured in Saturday's game between these sides. Altrincham included Reserves Pat Claffey, Keith Mairs and Anthony Hargreaves on the bench, alongside new signing James Wilkinson, previously with Macclesfield Town. Indeed, none of the Alty bench had started a first-team game this season. Also missing were long-term injured players Carl Furlong and Paul Taylor, plus Stuart Locke, but Chris Adams had recovered from his ankle injury to start the game. Up front, Lee Poland came into the starting line-up. For Spalding, Damien Steer replaced Martin Bunce in goal.
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| An Alty corner |
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| A crowded goal mouth. Spaulding keeper Damien Steer in the thick of things |
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| Its raining I've retreated to the MacDonald Stand |
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| Goal - Mark Sertori wheels away after a great header, from a corner sends the ball to the back of the net. The Spaulding players raise their hands in disbelief. |
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| The Spaulding players celebrate their equalizer from Stephenson. The Alty players try to work out what went wrong |
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| Mark Sertori in defensive action |
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| The Alty defense holds firm |