Altrincham’s penultimate game in this season’s pre-season schedule ended in a 5-1 defeat against a very strong Stoke City side.

This fixture was originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday evening at The J. Davidson Stadium but was moved to an afternoon kick-off at Stoke City’s Clayton Wood Training Ground, the same venue as last year’s pre-season fixture, which also ended with the same scoreline.

Altrincham’s starting line-up:-

Oliver Byrne, Aiden Roxburgh, Liam Brockbank, Toby Mullarkey, Lewis Baines, Elliot Osborne, Trialist, Ben Pringle, Chris Conn-Clarke, Ryan Colclough, Jordan Hulme

Stoke, with their new coach, John O’Shea, the former Manchester United & Republic of Ireland international, on the side-line, fielded a very strong & experienced side in the first half, ahead of their Championship opening fixture at Millwall on Saturday.

The first half was an even affair, with the Robins achieving a much higher percentage of the ball than would have been expected. Chris Conn-Clarke scored his first goal for the club with a tremendous dipping shot from outside the area to put Alty ahead in the 34^th minute, just as Marcus Dinanga had done last August when the Robins were fully in charge of the opening exchanges.

Stoke levelled within a couple of minutes, as a long diagonal cross was headed into the path of Dwight Gayle, who side footed the equaliser from 6 yards. It was not the first time that Gayle, who signed a 2 year deal this week for the Staffordshire club, following six years at Newcastle United, has scored against us.

The 32 year-old was on the mark in a National League North encounter at The J.Davidson Stadium for Bishop’s Stortford in a 2-0 victory for the Hertfordshire side in March 2012. Gayle, who played in the 2016 FA Cup Final for Crystal Palace against Manchester United, also saw a late penalty saved by the legendary Stuart Coburn in that game.

Stoke rang the changes at half-time, whilst Alty brought on a couple of trialists to play in the full-back positions.

Things soon went wrong for Alty as Stoke’s less experienced line-up scored three times in five minutes through Emre Tezgel, Jack Griffiths and Will Smallbone, who signed last week from Southampton.

At 4-1, Phil Parkinson & Neil Sorvel introduced Marcus Dinanga, Jake Cooper, Matt Gould, Amaar Hussain, Ryan Morton, Harlan Rodgers-Morris & a number of trialists, before D’Margio Wright-Phillips converted a low left-wing cross at the far post to complete the scoring.

Manchester United U23s visit The J.Davidson Stadium on Saturday as the Robins complete their pre-season match schedule. A big crowd is expected & kick-off is at 3pm.