Photo by Tom Poole
Altrincham FC left the LNER Community Stadium with all three points following a narrow win tonight in York.
The first chance of the game fell to Dan Batty who struck a shot from the edge of the box but it bounced wide of the left-hand post.
Tyrese Sinclair fed through a lobbed ball into the box and it met the head of Ollie Pearce for his first action in the game but his header was caught by Rob Lainton.
The first chance of note for the visitors fell to their top scorer Regan Linney who shot a half-volley towards the net but it flew over the bar.
York were seeing most of the ball in the opening quarter of an hour and were continuing to press when Sinclair teed the ball up to Cam John on the edge of the box who hit the ball towards goal but Lainton parried the ball away.
Joe Felix was next to try his luck in a red shirt, his shot from long distance wasn’t able to test Lainton as it flew wide of the right-hand post.
Against the run of play Altrincham took the lead on 24 minutes when a free-kick swung in was headed on by Lewis Baines and a nasty deflection dragged the ball into the City net.
City were trying to claw their way back on the scoresheet when Cam John played in a teasing cross looking for Stones who headed the ball goalwards but he could only find the stand behind the goal.
The second half started with City on top again. All it needed was a bit of magic from Alex Hunt to get the Minstermen level. His shot from range looped up and over the Alty defence and landed into the back of the net to level the game up.
The Robins went attacking from the restart and were looking for a bit of magic of their own when Alex Newby took a shot on from the edge of the box but Harrison Male got down low to collect.
Hunt was looking to cause problems for the visitors again, his venomous shot from outside the box was blocked by the defence into the arms of Lainton.
Alty top scorer Linney was looking to get involved on the action when he launched a shot from range which Male parried to his right-hand side.
The Robins were setting themselves up for another cross into the box which Male raced off his line to collect but substitute Justin Amaluzor pounced to drag to ball past the keeper before slotting into the net.
York were not going down without a fight. Ollie Pearce saw a shot from inside the box superbly blocked on the line by the visitors. The resulting corner was met by the head of Callum Howe but his effort could only rattle the crossbar.
It wasn’t to be York’s night as the visitors were able to see the scoring out.
YORK CITY: Male, Howe, Sinclair, Hunt, Pearce, Armstrong, Batty, John, Felix, Stones, Fagan-Walcott.
ALTRINCHAM: Lainton, Banks, Baines, Cooper, Osbourne, Marriott, Linney, Newby, Crawford, Golden, Nuttall.
ATTENDANCE: 6,365 (146 Away).
