The visitors applied instant pressure, playing direct football and forcing the young Robins defence to gather their bearings rather quickly.

Our game plan of using wider areas was a key aspect for Alty as we were able to punish the opposition with crosses.

Cosgrove opened up the scoring by lurking around the penalty area and finishing off a simple pass to make it 1-0.

Alty doubled the lead when a long ball from Tyson gave Haughton the chance to drive forward with pace and place a shot past the keeper.

Despite the attempts of Steven Gerrard Academy to play long balls and get in behind, Altrincham stayed strong and continued to pass the ball around.

Alty kept up the pressure and exploited the visitors' defence for a third goal, as Jones received a pass and applied a beautiful finish into the bottom corner.

In the second half, Altrincham were being put under more pressure. Unable to find their feet, it seemed with every play Steven Gerrard Academy were winning the ball back, which gave them numerous chances to score.

Gaps in the defence and a lack of communication resulted in the away team scoring, to make it 3-1, but this didn’t make Altrincham's heads go down.

Again making use of the wingers, the home side were able to pass the ball to striker Igbinake, who beat two defenders and struck the ball viciously into the net.

Igbinake's hold-up play had opened up many promising moments for the Robins throughout the game, and he was instrumental in Alty making it 5-1.

A long ball upfield was headed on by the Alty frontrunner, and when a poor clearance by the visitors' left-back was seized on by Jose, the Robins youngster finished it with his left foot.

Squad: 

Noah Tyson

Ian Jose

Peter Arogun

Harrison McCarthy

Tom Jones

Ali Abdullah

Josh Mannie

Dan Nodding

Alfred Igbinake  

Mo Ceesay  

Ethan Cosgrove

Yusuf Adeniyi

Alex Egbon

Byron Haughton