Altrincham v Brackley Town ...

... on Saturday.  3rd were playing 4th in the Skrill North - but what a cr*p game it turned out to be (especially for the neutrals - oh and possibly the faithful few who came up from Northamptonshire).  Brackley have conceded very few goals - and were unbeaten coming into this game ... but I don't know what their game plan was (apart from lump it up front to Mulligan).  Alty created more chances ... but there were still so many "unforced errors" if you like.  A couple of penalty appeals from the Alty side of things - one cleared off the Alty line by Luca Havern ... but all in all it wasn't the "top game in the Skrill North" that it had been hyped up to be.  Here's some piccies from the game (note I've had to copyright a few as well - having checked with my 'employers', it's fine for me to show - but ...)

Altrincham 1 Brackley Town 0

After the game (when I was ensconsed in the Press Box sorting out "stuff") was the manic rainstorm with thunder, lightning etc etc.  Alty wi-fi was described by their guy as "iffy" (!!!) so it was a good test for the new dingle-dongle - which worked perfectly - shame about the pictures really - also the new laptop behaved impeccably - the speed of download from camera CF card to computer was excellent - maybe now I feel I can take a few more pics when "on the paid job" - rather than being careful (thinking of the time, deadlines etc after the game).  Still, we got there in the end !

So - while I was at Moss Lane Altrincham, Mossley were beating Lancaster City 3-2 in the FA Trophy ... their reward is an away tie at Northwich Victoria (Flixton Vics ?? well that's where they're playing !!)  Curzon Ashton won 1-0 away at Cammell Laird, and now face a journey to Kidsgrove Athletic in the next round (incidentally Dave Stringer - who wrote the Alty/Brackley match report in the "NLP" - is involved at Kidsgrove, and after the Alty game - up in the press pen - he was over the moon when he found out that they'd beaten Stamford in the Trophy !).

Around the rest of Tameside it was defeats all round ... Hyde FC (3-4 at Dartford); Stalybridge (0-1 at Leamington - 90th minute winer !) and Ashton United (0-3 at home to Sheffield in the Trophy).  Tonight sees Curzon at home to Salford in the Evo 1 North - apologies for absence as I'm going to the Mossley/Lancaster game tomorrow night (which of course means I'll miss the Stalybridge/Vauxhall game - which I guess is the first "proper game in charge" for their new Manager Keith Briggs - hopefully I'll be down at Bower Fold on Saturday to see Celtic play Leamington - a chance for early revenge !!).

It rained a bit today ... on fact it rained a LOT today - and the forecast is no better for Tuesday - whether this has any effect on tomorrow's games ... we'll see - at least I've got the choice of two !
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