Game 14: Salisbury City 3.3 Altrincham (Blue Square Premier) 13.10.07

Sometimes it's best not to open your mouth and give your opinion on a scoreline. After 30 minutes of a scoreless first half I turned round to Andy and said that I really couldn't see a goal in this game. 30 seconds later an Altrincham player picked up the ball in midfield and belted it from distance over Ryan Clarke, under the cross bar and in. The first goal of a quite remarkable 3.3 draw!

Altrincham brought a decent and noisy contingent down South for this game, which kicked off at 1pm due to the England Euro qualifier later that afternoon. Picked up Andy from outside the Old Castle (that layby pickup is getting to be a habit!) and got to the ground in plenty of time. We decided to head to the far end (which Salisbury were attacking) only to find that while we were allowed to that end, the Altrincham fans were not allowed past the stewards. It subsequently turned out that this was due to the bar segregation at half time but it did seem petty to be honest.

Before the Altrincham goal Salisbury were well in control of the match and had created a number of chances - Fowler had a shot deflected wide and Feeney put a couple of half decent crosses into the box for Tubbs. After the goal went in they looked a bit shell shocked - which might explain why Clarke went running out of his goal again to play the sweeper and ended up taking out his man for a penalty which was duly converted.

After a change of ends and a stop off at the mobile tuckshop in the corner, we hoped for a change of fortune in the second half. Brown had a good chance early in the half but ended up kicking the air instead of the ball. Prince and Clay replaced Fowler and Bass, with Bartlett dropping back into defence but the change didn't pay off immediately as Altrincham hit the bar with a strong shot from close range and then scored a third. This time the ball wasn't cleared in the box and the Altrincham striker swept the ball into the net.

Salisbury tried to get back into the game and on 70 minutes an unmarked Marvin Brown rose up and headed in what we thought would be a consolation goal from a Luke Prince corner. Luke Oliver was moved upfront and Salisbury looked to play the ball high to him at every opportunity. After 87 minutes, another Prince corner was headed into the net - this time by Oliver at the near post - and an unlikely comeback seemed to be possible. With the crowd urging the Whites forward, Marvin Brown headed an equaliser a minute later to the relief of the home fans. Salisbury almost snatched a winner in injury time but the momentum couldn't quite stretch that far.

As we walked out to the car, an Alty fan wandered by looking shellshocked but still taking the time to wish us all the best and to tell us 'well played'. I think we could sympathise with him having seen similar games go against us over the years!