Altrincham Reserves 0 Poynton 1

Here is an account of Alty Reserves' latest fixture, kindly supplied by coach Danny Jarrett.

The young Robins lost by the only goal to a well organised Poynton team who came into this game knowing they would have to execute their game plan to a T for the result to go their way.

Poynton were happy with us keeping the ball and relied on trying to catch us on the break on their right hand side. We managed to deal with what little threat they caused, but we just couldn't find that little spark needed to break down their defence.

In the second half, we turned the screw and put them under a lot of pressure again, but, once more, their defence was resolute. Then, against the run of play, with 70 minutes gone, Poynton were handed the perfect opportunity to break the deadlock.

Substitute Henry Brown had only just entered the fray when the first tackle he made was deemed a foul, as the referee pointed to the spot.

The visitors were denied, though, as keeper Louie Fallon read the penalty-taker's intentions and pulled off a smart save to keep the game scoreless.

It didn't stay that way for long, however. Just two minutes later, Poynton found themselves on the break again, and this time their winger managed to skip inside and fire a low shot into bottom corner to give his side the lead.

After this, it was all one-way traffic, with the young Robins pushing for the equaliser. Unfortunately, we just could not find that little bit of quality that was needed.

All in all, even though it was a defeat, there were a lot of positives to be taken from this game, not least the respect Poynton showed such a youthful Alty line-up and how they set out to make it as hard as possible for us to play the way we normally do.

In addition, special mention should be made of the way 16-year-old centre-half Oscar Cooper rose to the challenge of making his first Reserve team appearance. Well done, Oscar!