Eagle Sports 3

Altrincham Reserves 3

Altrincham started very brightly and kept the ball well on a soft, heavy surface. Sharif Islam turned provider after 10 minutes, breaking down the left hand side to flash the ball across goal into the path of 17-year old Loui Williams, who finished first time to open the scoring.

Islam then doubled the visitors' lead, winning the ball on the halfway line and bearing down on the Eagle Sports keeper before dispatching the ball from inside the box.

At 2-0 up, the Robins then had a disastrous end to the half, with the home side kicking into life and scoring three times in the final 15 minutes.

In the second half, the Robins regained their control of the game and started to cause Eagle problems again.

Several chances were spurned by Altrincham, with their hosts looking dangerous on the break. Some heroic defending somehow denied Altrincham again, as, in the space of 10 seconds, four attempts were foiled, with the Robins forwards hitting everything but the back of the net.

In the very last minute, however, 17-year old Sheriff Njie ensured justice was done on his senior debut by grabbing a dramatic equaliser to secure a deserved point.

“For the first 20 minutes, we were excellent and thoroughly deserved our two-goal cushion," said Reserves manager Ross Speight. "Eagle worked their way back into the game, and we didn’t match them for 20 minutes and were rightly punished for it.

"At half-time, the players were reminded of their jobs, responsibilities and standards, and we were much improved second half. We created many chances, but it didn’t seem to be our day until Sheriff popped up with a goal late on.

"Eagle are a good side with a vast amount of experience, and I did fear the worst at half-time when they were in the ascendancy. Credit to the lads, though - they took the instructions on board in the second half and battled for a hard-fought point.”