Subs (not used)  Wilson, Senior

Hednesford Town 5 v 0 Altrincham

By MARK HARRIS

Robins suffered a bad day at the office on Saturday, going down to their heaviest defeat since returning to the Conference. A 5-0 thrashing brought the 13 league match unbeaten run to an end, and the only consolation is that the result simply used up one of Alty’s games in hand.

Although Robins do not drop any closer to the basement, a good opportunity to make up ground on the teams above was lost as most of their rivals were engaged on FA Trophy duty. The task facing manager Bernard Taylor and his backroom staff is to use Tuesday night’s Macmillan Trophy semi-final clash against Telford to make sure any hangovers from the trip to Keys Park are well and truly wiped away.

Unfortunately for Taylor, injuries have stripped his squad to the bare bones. At Hednesford, the continued absences of Shaun Goodwin, Keith Russell, Stuart Coburn and Brendan Burke, with Phil Power not yet at full fitness, meant that everyone available was named in an un-changed team. One boost, however, is that Russell may be available for Saturday’s six-pointer against Welling at Moss Lane.

The line-up wasn’t the only element of continuity from last Tuesday’s 3-3 draw against Telford. Robins never played after half time in that match, and the same was the case at Hednesford, who themselves were in the middle of a bad run. This was one of those days when nothing went right; the hosts won every 50:50 ball and free kick awards one-sided from the referee. Mr Prosser heads the Conference table for yellow cards, and consolidated that un-enviable record with eight more bookings – four for each side – in a game that could not boast a bad tackle.

Perhaps the loyal and vocal band of Robins’ fans who again made the trip outside Cheshire should have expected the worst when Chris Timons and Jason Gallagher were booked within a minute of each other over the same free kick. The Pitmen could not make the most of that opportunity, but did not squander the next one, which arose on 15 minutes. Alty have not been cutting out crosses of late, but when Mick Norbury’s centre came in, there were red faces all round as Ged KIMMINS was left un-marked on the edge of the six yard box with time to beat Greygoose. 0-1.

Had Leroy Chambers been able to convert Alty’s best chance of the match thirty seconds later, then the course of this match might have been very different. Instead, Chambers’ lunging effort landed the wrong side of Wilson’s left hand post from Ellison’s cross. This was the only glimpse of Ellison’s undoubted quality all afternoon, the player’s obvious ankle injury preventing him from playing a full part and causing his eventual substitution five minutes before the interval.

By that time, Alty were two goals down. Maddox’s back header lacked the pace to reach Greygoose, and Neil DAVIS nipped in between the pair to convert the gifted chance from 12 yards although Greygoose did save his initial effort. 0-2.

Any chance Robins had of recovering the deficit disappeared on 58 minutes. Hednesford’s Stuart Airdrie had already missed a good chance and Davis had seen a dipping volley just clear the bar when they capitalised on Alty pushing men forward. NORBURY was left in too much space and he had time aplenty to find the net from just inside the penalty area. 0-3.

Robins had already introduced Richard Landon for Gavin Price and Andy Lovelock for Ellison, and replied to the third Hednesford goal by swapping Power for Maddox , but still the agony was to piled on. On 77 minutes, another ball in from the Altrincham left found Ian ROBINSON, and he showed good skill to roll the ball under his right foot and fire a low shot past Greygoose with his left. 0-4.

On a day which most, if not all of the Moss Lane squad will want to forget – and quickly – Andy Lovelock and Phil Power both made good contributions when they came on, and Lovelock might have snatched a brace. His first effort found the side netting on 82 minutes, and a second clipped the bar a couple of minutes later. But there was to be no consolation goal, and a four goal hiding became five in the last minute, ironically such a productive spell in most recent matches for Alty.

On this occasion the tables were turned as ROBINSON notched his second. His 20 yard run was not stopped by a single Alty tackle, but his shot was weak. Dean Greygoose somehow allowed the ball to squirm under his body and trickle over the line. 0-5 and the entire afternoon summarised in a single incident.

ALTRINCHAM: Greygoose, Hodson, Adams, Maddox (sub. Power 59 mins), Talbot, Timons, Gallagher, Hawes, Chambers, Price (sub. Landon 55 mins), Ellison (sub. Lovelock 40 mins)

Subs (not used): Wilson, Senior