Woodley Sports 1 Altrincham 8

Cheshire Senior Cup

13 November 2001

Summary by John Laidlar for a full report by him go to the

  Official Site

This was the first ever competitive match between these two local neighbours. Woodley is a friendly club with a ground whose gently sloping pitch has recently been upgraded and which will shortly be graced by a new stand, the foundations of which are currently being laid.

In a fairly even first half, Alty took the lead after 31 minutes through Lee Poland, then Woodley missed a good chance to equalise just before the interval. However, Anthony Hargreaves doubled the visitors' lead on the stroke of half-time. Then, three goals inside five minutes at the start of the second period decided the game. Watson made it 2-1 after 30 seconds of the second period only for two goals from Steve Finney to make it 4-1 (50 mins). Poland scored three more (60,72,87 mins) with Ian Craney also getting on the score sheet (83 mins).

Altrincham arrived with a number of players missing through injury- Taylor, Furlong, Hulme and Gallagher. Rod Thornley and Stuart Coburn were rested. So the starting line-up included Lee Poland, Dave Swannick and, starting first-team games for the first time, Anthony Hargreaves and former Hyde keeper, Kurt Edginton. However, the big surprise was the appearance on the bench of last season's Altrincham top scorer, Steve Finney. Steve had played at Moss Lane in 2000-01 whilst on loan from Chester City but had not been at Altrincham since the end of last season, although the Robins had retained his UniBond player registration. For their part, Woodley had been having an indifferent run recently after a fine start to the season had taken them to the higher reaches of the NW Counties Division One, two rungs down the pyramid from the UniBond Premier League.

Woodley Sports Club  gave a warm and friendly welcome to Altrincham which compensated for a bitterly cold evening. The lights were even worse than those at Moss lane  lights making it difficult for the photographer. Here is the small but comfortable stand, a second one is in construction

Mid-field action

At the other end with Alty defending

More mid-field action

Steve Finney makes a welcome return to Alty and celebrates with two goals. Here he is on his way with his second

Down and out! Steve Morris makes a desperate attempt to save from Lee Poland's first of his three goals which was Alty's 5th. It looks though Steve had decided to bury his head in the pitch

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