LATE goals have been the scourge of Altrincham this season.

An 82nd-minute goal from Tom Gray gave Southport a 1-0 victory in midweek and put Altrincham on the foot of the Blue Square Bet Premier table – having picked up a single point from their four matches this term.

It’s been part of a trend as goals conceded by the Robins in the last ten minutes of matches have already lost them six points – after smash and grabs from Darlington (a last minute Tommy Wright goal in a 2-2 draw) and Luton Town (Matthew Barnes-Homer two minutes from time in a 2-1 opening day defeat).

Alty have also lost 1-0 to Crawley in the meantime so, like York, are still waiting to pick up their first three point haul of the campaign.

They have not been helped by a crippling injury list which, for the Southport game, meant former Minstermen transfer target Michael Twiss, Matt Doughty, Robbie Lawton, midfielder Anthony Danylyk and England ‘C’ international Shaun Densmore were all out.

Manager Graham Heathcote is also still to receive international clearance from the Australian FA for Matty Crowell and that left him with just 14 of his 20-man squad for the Southport trip.

Danny Holmes and Kevin Holsgrove both made their first starts for Altrincham and Heathcote’s injury situation is not likely to clear up any time soon.

Doughty has a cruciate ligament problem, Twiss is still troubled by an ankle injury he picked up in pre-season while Lawton’s bruised ribs mean he is likely to be missing for a further fortnight.

Altrincham, who have habitually fought in the bottom half of the table, surprised Conference watchers last season when briefly flirting with the play-offs before finally finishing 14th.

But they lost defensive talisman Greg Young to York, while Chris Senior left for Darlington and main scorer Colin Little left at the end of last season to coach Manchester United Under-13s.

The early signs are that Altrincham are finding them hard to replace.


Match facts

Altrincham have made five previous Conference visits winning once, 2-1 in 2008/9, and drawing once.

The clubs first met at York in September 2005 when City won 5-0 with Clayton Donaldson, James Dudgeon, Andy Bishop, Joe O’Neill and Bryan Stewart on target.

Richard Brodie netted a stoppage-time penalty to win the corresponding game 2-1 last term with David McGurk the other scorer.

The line-up on April 6, 2010, was: Ingham, Purkiss, Graham, McGurk, Meredith, Harsley, Barrett, Clarke (Lawless), Pitt (Carruthers), Brodie, Gash (Rankine).

It happened on August 28

1954: A Bootham Crescent crowd of 12,911 saw Scunthorpe United win a Third Division North fixture 3-2 with Norman Wilkinson and Billy Fenton on the scoresheet.

1971: City lost 3-2 at home to Plymouth Argyle in Division Three (League One) watched by 5,342. Tommy Henderson and Paul Aimson were the marksmen.

1984: City came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Doncaster Rovers in a first-leg first-round Football League Cup tie with goals from John Byrne (2) and Gary Ford.

1999: After leading 3-2 at Barnet thanks to goals from Barry Conlon (2) and Mark Atkins, City crashed to a 6-3 defeat at Barnet in the Third Division (League Two).

2004: A 4-0 reverse at Gravesend and Northfleet and City had started their first season in the Conference with three defeats in four games.

2006: Clayton Donaldson scored the only goal of the game at Rushden and Diamonds and City had won four and drawn one of their opening five matches.

Compiled by David Batters