Altrincham F.C. Vs The Gas - News/Build Up/Match Thread And Poll

along with the infamous J Davidson - lock up your HTV weather girls before going up there if it's the same one

 

Manager on Saturday's game

Darrell Clarke admits his side will have to play a lot better than they did during the first half of Tuesday night’s defeat at the hands of Barnet.

However, the manager will not be overreacting at this stage in the season.

He said: “We got beat the other night, mistakes made by all concerned, and everything becomes over scrutinised because we are Bristol Rovers – a big club in the Conference.

“What I have to do is manage that situation. I do hold myself a bit responsible for the first half performance.

“I am confident we will be in amongst it, we have had a couple of games and there have been a few lessons learnt.

“We cannot afford to concede the sloppy goals we have conceded, but we will be going for it in our away games.

“If we can get 12 or 13 away victories this year, which is my target, we will have a good away record, and obviously you have to win your home games to be successful.

“I won’t be overreacting, but we need to get a win to kick start our season.

"We are going to take some hits this season, and it is about how you recover from those hits."

Altrincham will be the first part time team that Rovers come up against, but Darrell does not expect that to make too much difference at this stage in the season.

He said: “It doesn’t really make a big difference early in the season as the fitness levels will be pretty good, sometimes it makes a big difference after Christmas when the fatigue starts to kick in for the part-time teams.

“Every game is a challenge at this level, there aren’t any easy games, but we are going to be trying to win every match we play in.

“We are going to have to play a hell of a lot better than we did during the first half on Tuesday.

“The pitch will be decent, and we will go up there and respect Altrincham, but we are going to try and win a football match.

“We have to concentrate on ourselves, and for me it is about getting that first win on the board. As soon as we get that first win, we will kick on.”

The manager is hopeful that he will have a new face in before Saturday’s game.

He said: “Touch wood I should have a winger in by tomorrow morning. It has been agreed by the clubs verbally, I have spoken to the lad and he is delighted to be joining us.

“I will be pleased to get an out and out winger in as it gives me better options. The loan will be until January, so we will have him for a good few months. I am then still looking for another striker.”

The team took a few knocks on Tuesday night, but the manager will be assessing those players over the next two days.

He said: “We have one or two knocks, but we will assess them over the next couple of days.

“Tom Lockyer’s teeth got knocked to the back of his throat on Tuesday night. Tom epitomises everything about this football club, so we hope to get him back pretty sharpish.

“We are hoping Steve Mildenhall will be available, one of his close relations is very ill in hospital, but we will assess that come Saturday.

“Kieran Preston is available for the weekend he is back from his three days with the Scotland under 19s.”

 

This is from the Post which has some different stuff if you compare it to what Clarke said above.....

Manager Darrell Clarke knows that guiding Bristol Rovers to a first win of the season at Altrincham on Saturday is the only way to silence his critics at the end of a difficult opening week of the season. Clarke said:
“You are expecting it (criticism) whenever you lose a game. You lose a game and people get carried away, but I have no problem with that because that is all part and parcel of football these days. Mistakes get made and everything gets over scrutinised because we are a big club in the context of the league we are in. What I have to do is manage that situation because that is the situation we are in. We are going to take some hits this season and the important thing for me is to make sure we recover from them quickly. I won’t be over-reacting to the situation and I’ll make sure the players won’t be over-reacting either. We just need to kick-start our season with a win at Altrincham on Saturday.”

Clarke, meanwhile, admitted some responsibility for the disappointing first-half performance that ultimately proved costly at The Hive. The manager made three unforced changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Grimsby on the opening day, and he admitted:
“We made individual mistakes, but I do hold myself a bit responsible for the first-half performance. Lessons have been learned and I’m still confident that we will be in and amongst it.”

Rovers will get their first experience of taking on one of the Conference Premier’s part-time sides at Moss Lane tomorrow, but Clarke warned:
“I don’t think it will make much difference at this stage of the season. You might start to see some negative effects after Christmas when a little bit of fatigue sets in. Every single game is a challenge at this level and we respect each and every single team in the same way regardless of whether they are part-time or full-time.”

The club, meanwhile, has been forced to reduce the number of overnight stays for away games and Clarke, who will be making the 150-mile trip with his players on Saturday morning, said:
"We have to cut our cloth accordingly and I don’t have a problem with it. The finances of the football club are what they are and we just have to get on with it.”

Clarke is hopeful of having Steve Mildenhall available again after the goalkeeper missed Tuesday night’s game at Barnet after a relative was rushed into hospital. Mildenhall trained on Thursday, but Clarke said:
“We are hopeful, but we’ll have to monitor the situation right up until we leave on Saturday morning.”

Tom Lockyer is also a doubt after requiring extensive dental work to straighten his teeth after catching a stray elbow in the face at The Hive earlier this week.

 

All you need to know about tomorrow's opponents

This weekend Bristol Rovers will take a trip for the very first time to The J Davidson Stadium at Moss Lane, Altrincham. This will be the first of many firsts this season!

Alty are finding their latest season in the Vanarama Conference every bit as tough as expected, following their promotion last season. After an opening-day 3-1 setback at Aldershot they suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to Lincoln City at home on Tuesday night.

Lincoln scored their first goal of the season when a corner was taken short by Sean Newton to Jon Nolan who gave him it back. Newton curled in a deep centre which was met by Jordan Burrow whose powerful header beat Stuart Coburn in the home team’s goal.

The home side went close early in the second half when Steven Gillespie cut in from the left and his shot rapped Nick Townsend’s bar. As the game reached its final 10 minutes City pieced together a great move down the left and after the neat passage of play opened up the home defence, Newton fizzed in a cross and Substitute Conner Robinson headed the ball into the net from six yards to make it 2-0.

Atly’s substitute Damien Reeves scored a late consolation goal after capitalising on a rare moment of hesitation between Tony Diagne and Townsend.

Despite failing to collect a single point from the opening two games, the Cheshire team’s Boss Lee Sinnott remains upbeat, “We’ll be OK. It’s fine lines at the moment, I thought the performance against Lincoln was better than on Saturday. There were positives at Aldershot but more in this second game.

“We have played four halves now and conceded in the first 10 minutes in three of them. I mentioned that at half-time and told the players “that stops now”, and thankfully it did. We didn’t concede in the opening minutes of the second half against Lincoln, so that is a little box ticked.

“It’s just as well, because you can’t keep shooting yourself in the foot by not starting a half correctly. It’s how things manifest themselves, and if you switch off and allow someone to go for a short corner, particularly someone with a wonderful delivery like their left- back Sean Newton, you are asking for trouble.

“We switched off for a second, and, bang, it’s at our far post and into the net for 1-0. That’s what happens at this level. Then Steven Gillespie produces a bit of brilliance and it hits the bar. Fine lines again, when it could so easily have been 1-1.

"The way we went at it in the second half, I thought it might have been us who scored the goals, but their second left us too much to do.

“There is a case for saying the step-up we’ve made is as difficult and challenging as any in the game, because we’ve left behind a part-time league for one that is packed with full-time professional outfits. If we expected to come into this division and immediately start creating as much as we did in the Conference North, we’d be in cuckoo land.”

“It’s just being realistic and logical to say we can’t just assume we are going to walk into the Conference and swat everyone aside. You’ve got to work at it. It is a work in progress, and that’s what we are.

"There were positives at Aldershot and even more in the performance against Lincoln. All round, we were better on Tuesday night, but I don’t want to be saying that all the time and not seeing points on the board.

“We need to learn the lessons quickly, and take them on board. I just thought we were a better physical presence in the second half against Lincoln than early in the first half. There are promising signs there. You can see them.

"But you have to deal with what this league is about, because it can find you out if you don’t step up to the plate physically, probably more so than technically.

“I thought, in the second half, some of our passing was as good as anything I saw from Lincoln, but the difference was the bit of quality they showed when it came to delivering balls into the box. That’s something we should have done better, but there were positive signs, and we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact we are only two games into the season.

“I dare say there will be some doom-mongers saying we are not good enough, but that is not the case. Give these lads a chance to become accustomed to the level they are playing at. You can tell them all about it, but they need to experience it for themselves to realise what it is about.

“We do need to cut the players some slack, because it is a real jump from the Conference North to this division. You just don’t have as much time on the ball, for one thing, because the players we are up against are so sharp mentally and physically and are pacey when the ball is in the opposition zone.

“You have to recognise when you’ve got time and when you haven’t. I’ve always said you can’t play in third gear if you are being closed down in fifth gear. If you are being closed down quickly, you’ve got to execute quickly.

"We are learning that aspect, but it is a question of coming to terms with the new surroundings we find ourselves in. By that, I mean grasping the fact that we won’t get the sort of chances we got in the Conference North and we will get punished if we give the ball away needlessly, especially in dangerous areas but even when there might not be any apparent sign of immediate danger.”

Altricham has a long history as a club, but when they were actually founded remains a queston. The Altrincham AFC came into place in 1903.

In 1891 Rigby Memorial Club, formed from a local Sunday school. They went on to merge with another local club know as the "Grapplers" to form Broadheath F.C. and become founder members of the Manchester League in 1893.

Prior to 1903 the club played on a variety of fields in Broadheath, West Timperley and Altrincham before acquiring a new home at Pollitt's Field and, at the same time, changing their name to Altrincham AFC

In 1968–69 Altrincham joined The Northern Premier League (NPL) as founder members and remained there for 11 seasons until they joined the Alliance Premier League (now the Football Conference) as founder members at the beginning of the 1979–80 season, going on to win the league in its first two seasons.

Despite their success Altrincham failed to gain election to the Football League on both occasions due to the voting system in place at the time. In 1980, Altrincham fell short of election to the Football League by the narrowest of margins.

It wasn't until 1987 that automatic promotion was awarded to the league; since then Altrincham have only challenged for promotion in the 1990–91 season, eventually finishing 3rd behind Barnet and Colchester United.

Altrincham never regained their success of the 1970s and 1980s and in 1997 they were relegated from the top flight of non-league football to the Northern Premier League for the first time in their history.

They won that the NPL title two years later, only to go back down again after just one season in the Conference. It was five years before they gained promotion again, in 2005 as winners of the Conference North/Conference South playoffs beating Eastbourne Borough of Conference South at The Britannia Stadium in the final match.

Altrincham were uniquely reprieved from relegation for three successive seasons (2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08) as a result of other clubs' issues.

The 2008–09 season proved to be a much better campaign for Altrincham, with the club spending much of the season in mid-table, and they eventually achieved safety from relegation with two games to spare.

Altrincham did even better in 2009–10, challenging for a play-off spot early in the campaign and finishing in a relatively safe 14th place.

The club had a poor start to the 2010–11 season, earning only one point from their first eight games, which resulted in the sacking of long-time manager Graham Heathcoate in September.

Ken McKenna replaced Heathcoate and the team's form gradually improved as the season went on, but their awful start cost them in the end and they were relegated in 22nd place on the final day of the season.

Former Farsley Celtic and Port Vale manager Lee Sinnott became the club's new manager for the Conference North Campaign and guided them to promotion last season.

 

All you need to know ahead of tomorrow's game

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Opposition: Altrincham have lost their first two games since promotion to the Conference last season. Altrincham captain Shaun Densmore, who was injured by a tackle on Tuesday night, will be out for around six weeks with a broken toe

Opposition View: Altrincham boss Lee Sinnott remains said: “We’ll be OK. It’s fine lines at the moment, I thought the performance against Lincoln was better than on Saturday. There were positives at Aldershot but more in this second game.

Darrell Clarke’s Comments: Altrincham will be the first part time team that Rovers come up against, but Darrell does not expect that to make too much difference at this stage in the season.

Last Meeting:This will be the first time the club's have ever faced each other

Team News: Darrell Clarke's side picked up a few bumps and knocks against Barnet, and the manager will be assessing things ahead of tomorrow's game

Tickets: Tickets for Bristol Rovers' trip to Altrincham will be available to buy on the day. Tickets in the uncovered away end are priced at £14 for adults, £9 for concessions and £2 for U12s. The main stand is also open to away supporters, and tickets here cost £15 for adults, £10 for concessions and £2 for U12s

Listen Live: Unable to make the trip to The J Davidson Stadium? Then you can follow all the action from 3pm as Bristol Rovers take on Altrincham LIVE on Gas Player or on BBC Radio Bristol 94.9FM frequency or DAB
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I'm a bit worried that they have decided to travel there and back in a day on one of the busiest weekends for holiday traffic...it's a long enough journey on a good day. They may need to warm up at a service station...

 

when i was going to away games on the coaches as a kid, we use to have a football with us and we played a game of football at the services. was great fun. was bored out my head on the journey but the kick about made it worth while!

 

But you cried all the way home

Where is Altrincham?

 

often fell asleep on the way home!

google altrincham and find out

 

Greater Manchester

 

Just outside Manchester... a bit of a hack...

 

dont tell him make him search for it himself the lazy git!

 

Just south of Lincoln...sorry...

 

M6 north bound closed near Stoke-On-Trent ...

 

yep. lets hope the players turn up. there again lets hope they dont! may stand a chance of winning!

 

Here is the link to listen to the game online http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_bristol

If you want to listen on the radio we are on 94.9FM

 

6 changes today!!!

 

6 changes from Barnet on Tuesday: In comes Mildenhall, Leadbitter, Parkes, Clarke, Martin (loanee) & Brunt


Team: 442 formation

Mildenhall
Leadbitter Parkes McChrystal Brown
Sinclair Mansell Clarke Martin
Brunt Taylor

Subs: Puddy (GK), Trotman, Gosling, Monkhouse & White. Only 5 subs allowed in the conference.

 

Not a fan of so many changes every week,

Pick your best 11 and stick with them,

That said, I think we should be good enough to get a result today and kick start our season !!!!