UniBond Premier
22 February 2003
Whitby Town 0 Altrincham 1
Summary and other details by John Laidlar. His full report is in the Official Site
Despite their fifth-place in the league and their status as joint leading scorers in the division, Whitby came into this match with a poor recent home record of just one victory in six league games. Before today, Altrincham had never lost to Whitby in seven encounters since the clubs first met in 1997. However, for the second Saturday running, Alty were playing on a poor playing surface, where the ball bobbled and players at times had trouble keeping their feet
TEAM NEWS
Altrincham had Peter Band and Ian Craney back from suspension but leading scorer and captain Rod Thornley remained sidelined by his thigh strain. Sean Smith was another obvious absentee after his car crash last Sunday whilst Danny Murphy and Neil Ryan also remained unfit for action. Tony Sullivan was on the bench with fellow striker Steve Lunt and midfielder Jordan Burke.
Whitby included Marc Riches, the Durham City goalkeeper, for his first game of the season though he had appeared for the Seasiders last season.
After a first half with few goal-scoring chances, Altrincham put in a strong second half display to record a deserved win. The only goal was a penalty in the 65th minute that was converted well by Barry Shuttleworth after Gary Talbot had been felled in the box. The game at times threatened to boil over and six players were booked, among them Gary Talbot, Ian Craney and Dave Gardner for Altrincham. Alty have now gone 7 games without defeat in the league.
For more photos of this game from the Whitby point of view visit Bri Murfield's Turnball site at http://www.bjmje.freeserve.co.uk/alty.htm
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| The stand at Whitby is badly in need of replacement. This may not be too long now. There are some design drawings of the new stand in the social club and they look very impressive. I hope their plans come to fruition |
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| Goal mouth action in front of the Whitby goal. only Mark Maddox and Peter Band in sight but it is a nice colorful picture |
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| Ian Craney back from England duty and suspension with Simon Rose keeping an eye on things |
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| Whitby's keeper Marc Riches, the Durham City goalkeeper, who was playing for Whitby for the first time, and kept up a friendly banter with the Alty fans behind his goal |
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| Dave Gardner was a thorn on the side of Whitby and often he was made to pay for it. Here Dave is the transgressor and the referee reads the riot act to him |
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| Barry Shuttleworth score from the spot for the deciding goal |
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| Hands on! I do not know what the Whitby player had in mind because it was getting pretty dark as Whitby seemed to be saving on electricity and not turning on the floodlights |
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| It was a game full of niggles game which culminated in a heated discussion! |