ALTRINCHAM (Moss Lane)

FA CUP 4th QUALIFYING ROUND, ALTRINCHAM 1-0 CHESTER, ATTENDANCE: 1,603

The road to Wembley continued with a visit to a club with a long, proud FA Cup history. Altrincham have sixteen victories against Football League clubs to their name. The club history page lists them as follows:

1921/22 Tranmere Rovers
1965/66 Rochdale
1973/74 Hartlepool
1974/75 Scunthorpe United
1979/80 Crewe Alexandra and Rotherham United
1980/81 Scunthorpe United
1981/82 Sheffield United and York City
1982/83 Rochdale
1984/85 Blackpool
1985/86 Blackpool and Birmingham City
1988/89 Lincoln City
1992/93 Chester
1994/95 Wigan Athletic

Altrincham's win at St Andrew's was the last defeat of any First/Premier Division team at their own ground by a non-League club in the FA Cup. Other notable games include drawing with Everton, at Goodison, in 1975, before losing the replay at Old Trafford and drawing with Spurs, at White Hart Lane, in 1979, before losing the replay at Maine Road.

When the draw was made, throwing up a Cheshire derby with Chester, a Blues supporting mate of mine suggested a day out on the train to Altrincham, as it had been over decade since I last visited Moss Lane I thought "why not".

To the best of my recollection, the ground hasn't changed much in the intervening years. Segregation was in force today and, as I was with my Chester mates, I ended up on the open terrace, fortunately the predicted heavy rain held off.

The game was largely forgettable but there can be no complaints with the result.

The winner came in the 51st minute when a Jordan Sinnott a free kick (pictured below left) was saved by Jon Worsnop but the ball was parried into the path of Damian Reeves who fired the ball home.

There was a bizarre incident shortly after the goal when Worsnop rushed off his line to prevent Simon Richman getting an effort at goal. The Chester goalkeeper got there first but took both ball and man.

Referee Richard Wigglesworth pointed to the spot and the Altrincham player stepped up to take the penalty. The Chester players protested and the referee then changed his mind! I can't recall ever seeing that in all the years I have been watching football. The game restarted with a drop ball.

Chester naturally increased the pressure and although Altrincham goalkeeper Tim Deasy made a couple of decent saves, the Robins were able to comfortably see the game out, ensuring they were in the hat for the first round draw on Monday evening.

Altrincham is a top place for a beer or two so, as the train was taking the strain, it would have bad form not to have one or two! Pre-match was spent in Costello's Bar, the Brewery Tap for Dunham Massey, which was excellent and post-match it the Old Market Tavern was so we could watch Everton slump to their annual defeat at the Arsenal live on TV.