In "Its in the net" in the Bower Bulletin, the Stalybridge Celtic Matchday Program 14 Dec 2002

Thanks Iain

ALTRINCHAM are fortunate in the non-league world to have two of the most highly regarded web-sites, not just in the UniBond Premier, but in the whole of non-league football.

The official site (www.altrinchomfc.com) may not be the easiest web site on the eye, but if any more information was stuffed into the site, cyberspace would burst.

As well as the expected fixtures, results, match reports, player profiles and club news for the first team, reserves and youth, there is a news roundup service that rivals Reuters.

If it happens in non-league, then it appears on the Altrincham web site. The current news is all stored on the home page, and can take a bit of scrolling to read due to the sheer amount of it.

For those people with a slower internet connection, the wait is well worth it. It is this news page that makes Altrincham's web site one of the places I visit on a regular basis.

If you miss the news for a month, the news is all archived, in a huge repository of old news. Fortunately, at the bottom of the home page there is a search engine to scour the whole site for a particular piece of news.

The match report section is also comprehensive, with every game for the first team having a report, and many for the reserves and youth teams also being reported on.

Most of the reports have pictures taken by Alan Johnson, who runs the Photographic History of Altrincham FC (www.altyfc.u-net.com), but more on him later.

As you would expect from the rest of the site, the match reports are complete.

There's a summary, a list of the goals scored, and how that affected the scoreline, team news and the lines-ups for both team, photographs interspersed in the correct places in the text, and a background to the game.

A web site can never have enough information, but John Laidlar's official site comes very close!

Altrincham's other web site, the Photographic History site mentioned earlier, used to be the official site, but Alan Johnson decided to call it a day, the now official one became the official one when Alan stepped down, allowing the Photographic History to be born.

Every single first team game played by Altrincham this season is captured in photographs that depict the matches and provide a good sense of atmosphere.

Altrincham's recent games at Marine and Bradford Park Avenue captures the mud and rain, and makes you sympathetic for the players. The home games also include presentations to the players as well as some excellent action shots.

Most match reports on the Celtic site do not come with pictures unfortunately. It takes a dedicated photographer, like Alan Johnson, to capture matches in this way. Volunteers are always welcome though!