Words Ryan Knowles Picture Jonathan Moore

Fylde 0 Altrincham 3

The one-hour trip to Fylde proved fruitful for Altrincham's Academy youngsters as they coasted to a convincing National League victory.

Both teams were battling in the heat, with Fylde thinking they had scored early on, only for the linesman to flag for offside.

It proved a wake-up call for the young Robins, though what was developing into a great game, with chances for both sides, remained goalless as the half-time whistle sounded. 

During the half-time break, Academy coach Paul Fay had a chat which led to a different Altrincham coming out for the second 45 minutes.

The effect was soon evident, as Watts drove out from the back and located a gap in the midfield to find Renshaw in the pocket.

 Renshaw took the ball on the back foot and looked up to see Martin, with a defender pinning him. It made no difference, as Martin held off the defender and turned to aggressively slot the ball into the top corner.

Eight minutes later, Watts played a 60-yard diagonal pass to Mannion, whose exquisite touch and control enabled him to glide past his man and cut the ball back to Martin, who pulled it down and struck it on the half volley to make it 2-0.

Substitutions were made to bring some fresh legs on to the pitch.  Mannion, Sneyd, Martin and Knowles were leading the Alty press, putting pressure on to the Fylde defence and making it difficult for them to play.

With two minutes left, Alty wrapped up the points with a brilliant goal from Knowles, who snatched the ball off a defender at the halfway line and looked up to see the keeper  off his line.

Much as the Fylde number one hurried back towards his goal, he could do nothing about the finish from Knowles, who drove it beyond his reach from the halfway line to round off the scoring.

Altrincham's game management came into play, and a great result and clean sheet was duly secured for the young Robins under the leadership of Paul Fay and Sara Newton.

Squad on the day:

Theo Bunting 
Kian Leckey
Henry Watts  
Raion Rowe
Charlie Hough 
Jimmy Taafe
Kian Mattison 
Joe Weston
Harry Watson
Ryan Knowles 
Isaac Mannion
Harley Renshaw 
Noah Lavin
Jacob Martin 
Will Sneyd