Nantwich Town 4 Altrincham Colts U-16s 3

Report by Alty player Rob Stanton

A tough one to take for Alty Colts as Nantwich managed to overturn a half-time deficit to come away 4-3 winners.
Nantwich started the game brightly, putting the Alty defence under early pressure for the first 10 or so minutes, but being kept at bay by some good clearances by Woolland and McCabe.
As the game went on, Alty collectively realised they were not going to be bullied and grew in confidence, starting to switch and bringing wide players into play. Around 20 minutes in, Stanton managed to steal the ball in the middle of the park and release Chandler in space for a smart finish into the bottom right corner.
Nantwich levelled after half-an-hour when they took a corner quickly, before the Alty defence was set, and unfortunately scored an equaliser.
Alty kept their composure, and, shortly before half-time, a loose touch from the Nantwich centre-back enabled Stanton to steal possession and beat the man before mirroring Chandler’s earlier finish to restore the Robins' lead.
The away team’s dominance was now really beginning to show, and a number of free-kicks were won in the opponents' final third, which lead to a number of good deliveries by Whittle that the team couldn’t quite convert.
Alty started the second half slowly and again were under the cosh for the opening spell, which unfortunately led to conceding early on, as Nantwich made it 2-2.
Nantwich then made a back-pass to their keeper, who tried to dribble the ball past a Howells press, the Alty player's hard work paying off as he dispossessed the keeper and passed the ball into an open net from a tight angle.
That put Alty 3-2 up, but parity was restored when a scrappy clearance from Alty led to a shot outside the area which just squeezed past the diving Fallon.
The visitors continued launching long high balls forward which the Nantwich defence were comfortably able to deal with, and the game finally tilted the home team's way when another shot beat Fallon to make it 4-3.
Altrincham had a few opportunities, including a free-kick close to the corner flag, which lead to a ball in to the near post, but, sadly, they were unable to convert any further opportunities.
Squad for the day:
1. Louie Fallon
2. Teddy Woolland
3. Oscar Cooper
4. Louis Lambkin
5. Lincoln Goddard
6. Matty Macfarlane
7. Toby McCabe
8. Afernee Denise
9. Jack Chandler
10. Harrison Howells
11. James O’Gara
12. Henry Murphy
13. Max Whittle
14. Robert Stanton
15. Kian Gonzalez
16. Ben Taylor