Altrincham 0 Alysebury 1

Summary and other details by John Laidlar. His full report is in the Official Site by John Laidlar

This was Aylesbury's first visit to Moss Lane since their sole season in the Conference in 1988-89. They are now in the Ryman Premier and, like Altrincham in the UniBond Premier, lay 13th in the table at kick-off today. Despite snow in the south-east of the country the game went ahead in sunshine on a very good, though softish, surface. Aylesbury were well supported, with their fans mainly taking up residence on the Popular side.

Rod Thornley, Alty's captain and leading scorer, was not fit enough to make the squad; nor was Neil Ryan. However, Gary Talbot was able to resume at centre-back and his partner, Mark Maddox, assumed the captaincy once more. Sean Smith was reduced to the bench with Barry Shuttleworth operating in left-midfield. Aylesbury's Craig Maskell had recovered from injury to start for The Ducks.

This was a match that Altrincham should have won but they wasted numerous chances and fell behind to a rare Aylesbury shot just before the interval. The Ducks took the lead in the 41st minute when the Altrincham defence failed to clear the third of three successive corners properly and Manuella struck a powerful shot from 12 yards. In the second half, Altrincham continued to have the better of the play and opportunities were spurned to draw level; however, the team was hampered by four injuries (Shuttleworth, Burke, Scott and Murphy) which reduced them to ten men for the last 15 minutes after all three substitutes had been used.

Andy Chew of Mitten & Chew Construction, Match Sponsor is presented a match ball by Neil Dawson

Neil Falkner of match ball sponsors Robinson's Preservation is presented a match ball by Neil Dawson

Peter Band gets a helping hand from Richard Horner

Jordan Burke flies high

A great save from this first corner

But the third corner in a row resulted in the deciding goal.

A take over - many of the Aylesbury fans took over the popular side

Aylesbury's keeper Lee Worgan kept his side in the FA Trophy by making several brilliant saves. Here he makes another from substitute Anthony Sullivan who turns away in disgust.

Man of the Match Ian Craney receives his Thresher award from Andy Chew of Mitten & Chew who were the Match sponsor