After enjoying over a week off, Alty are finally back in National League action today when they visit Dagenham & Redbridge, in a game that will be played in front of spectators at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.
Last Saturday's game against King's Lynn Town was postponed owing to a waterlogged pitch, giving the rest of the league an opportunity to catch up on the Robins slightly in terms of games played. Luck would be on Alty's side however, as results fell kindly and Phil Parkinson's men only dropped two places, from 4th to 6th.
Tuesday night's encounter with Woking also fell victim to the weather, and results elsewhere that night mean Alty come into this game in 8th.
It will be the nature of the season, that teams should leapfrog each other based on the number of games played as opposed to fair and reflective points totals. It was announced on Monday that Eastleigh's next three games will be postponed and rescheduled. As it stands they have played 9 games to our 13, so we could be as many as 6 games ahead of the Spitfires by Christmas.
Alty are hoping to extend a lucrative run of form, 12 points from 15 is the recent Robins haul, with the most recent win coming at Wrexham on 1st December.
Match report: A majestic first-half header from Ritchie Sutton was enough to give Altrincham an outstanding 1-0 victory. It was a lead they never looked like surrendering, as they stood firm whenever tested in a much more even second half and created several chances of their own with some slick approach work.
"We're delighted with the position and we're delighted with the recent performances, I'm just saying that there's more to come out of this team and I'll keep demanding more of them. I won't let them get too excited by that (Wrexham win) because on another day, if they score early it could go a different way."
It's over a week old now, but you may wish to refresh your memory with Phil Parkinson's post-Wrexham interview.
Dagenham & Redbridge come into this game on the back off a big victory at Weymouth, breaking a run of four games without a win. The team from east London sit in 19th place, but are unbeaten in five at home including a most recent 0-0 draw with Notts County and an Emirates FA Cup victory over Grimsby Town.
Alty's last meetings with the hosts came in the 06/07 season. They were instantly forgettable games: a 4-1 defeat away and a 5-0 defeat at home.
You can purchase the game for £9.99, all the information you need can be found here: https://www.daggers.co.uk/news...
You can listen to live commentary of today's game on Radio Robins, sponsored by Ashley Mowers Garden Machinery and the broadcast starts at 2.45pm.
The match commentary sponsor is Terry Surridge & Team Manchester Weightlifting Club,
The commentary team is Laurence Howarth & Niall Flynn.
You can listen to Radio Robins in any of the following ways:
1) By visiting our Match Centre on the club website
2) Download and install the Mixlr app on Android devices from the Google Play Store - start the app and search for 'Radio Robins'.
3) Download and install the Mixlr app on Apple devices from the Apple Store - start the app and search for 'Radio Robins'.
4) https://mixlr.com/radio-robins
Altrincham made it 5 wins out of 6 games with a thoroughly resilient display in East London with the destination of the points being decided by Jake Moult's close range finish after Matty Kosylo's floated free kick wasn't dealt with by the Daggers defensive line.
The victory, which lifted the Robins into 3rd place, albeit only for a couple of hours, following Bromley's win at Solihull in the late kick-off game televised by BT Sport , was marred by a serious injury midway through the 2nd half to Ryan Colclough, who it is feared may have sustained a broken leg, after a highly dangerous challenge from Abu Ogogo.
The Essex side started very well with the Robins seeing very little of the ball in the opening exchanges but it was not long before Phil Parkinson's side found its feet & Matty Kosylo seemeds destined to open his goalscoring account for Alty as he raced on to Yusifu Ceesay's intelligent through ball, but pulled his shot narrowly wide of the far post as the Alty bench looked on in expectation that the net would bulge.
Daryl McMahon's charges retaliated well with a good spell of their own but Joel Senior rescued a dangerous situatiion with a goalline clearance from Agogo's header & Mitch Brundle should have hit the target with a free header following a corner.
Back came Alty & Josh Hancock was inches away from converting Kosylo's searching pacy cross, but the former Fylde winger was soon to provide the assist that would lead to the only goal of the afternoon.Kosylo's delicate delivery, from a free kick outside the left hand edge of the area, wasn't dealt with at all by the home defence & Jake Moult reacted quickest to flick the loose ball in from about 3 yards after Tom Hannigan had helped the ball on.
There was a change of role for the Alty captain at the start of the 2nd half as Ritchie Sutton did not reappear having suffered a suspected broken toe, to be replaced by Simon Richman, who slotted into Moult's holding midfield role whilst his captain dropped into the centre of the back four.
It was another half-time substitute who almost equalised for Dagenham, as the dangerous Angelo Balanta fired againts the post with Tony Thompson well beaten.Agogo's 59th minute challenge on Ryan Colclough, produced a strong reaction from a number of Alty players & after a fairly lengthy delay, the Robins new marquee signing was stretchered off & will need an X-ray to discover the full extent of his injury.Agogo, remarkably, appeared to not be punished.
During the latter stages of the game, Kosylo burst through the Daggers rearguard again but a rather curious finish hit the side netting & Alty had to hold on to their single goal lead, which they did very well, although Jake Moult picked up a late yellow card, his 5th of the season, therefore he faces a 1 match suspension.
This was a highly disciplined & efficient performance from Phil Parkinson's & Neil Sorvel's team which has now won 4 National League games away from home, all by a 1-0 margin.
Attendance 773
