Vauxhall Motors 4 Altrincham 0 

UniBond Premier league

20 August 2002

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

Vauxhall Motors 4 Altrincham 0

After Saturday's disastrous opening game of the season at home to Harrogate, Altrincham were looking for an improvement. Alty's last away game of last season was at Rivacre Park so this was, effectively, their second away game on the trot against Vauxhall, who won last year's encounter 2-1. Vauxhall came into this game after a 2-2 draw on Saturday at Stalybridge.

This match was a vivid reminder of last season when Alty went three down inside half an hour to Frickley but this time the three goals to the opposition took only 19 minutes to arrive and Alty ended up losing 4-0 rather than 3-1, as on that occasion. In both games Altrincham belatedly settled down and last night at Vauxhall they enjoyed a good second half, although they did not seriously threaten the Vauxhall goal more than on a couple of occasions. The fourth Vauxhall goal, in the second of four "added on" minutes, was a cruel final nail in the Altrincham coffin.

Injuries to Danny Murphy and Ian Craney, which saw both fail to complete Saturday's game and also ruled them out for this match, did not help Bernard Taylor in his attempts to kick-start Altrincham's season after their four goal drubbing by Harrogate on Saturday. Also missing for this game were the injured Vernum Rowland and Neil Ryan. Peter Band remained suspended but Neil Murphy came in for his first competitive game for Altrincham. Also making his full debut was Simon Woodford in right midfield, whilst Jason Gallagher started on the bench. Gary Scott returned after missing Saturday's game through injury but played in central midfield rather than his normal position at the back or in wide midfield. Neil Murphy took over at right back with Rose dropping to the bench. In the Vauxhall side was Derek Ward, the ex-Stalybridge right-back, who had been on pre-season trial at Altrincham.

There are three good things to report from this game.  It was good to see Danny Murphy walking about with a bandaged ankle. His injury from Saturday was not as bad as first thought. His ankle is not broken but he has a suspected ligament strain which will keep him out of the game for about a month.  I won the raffle and will be enjoying a lager this evening. and the lights at Vauxhall were so poor that I could not take pictures in the second half The rest of the news was not good!

Nick Stephens finger tip save with Chris Young (No 9)in the new pale blue Alty strip. A sponsors name will be added at a later date

Chris Young (No 9) and Simon Woodford

Vauxhall's keeper Chris Holmes making about the only save he was required to make

Chasing the ball are Gary Scott and Mark Maddox

Gary Talbot does a knees up

Home