2022/23 Matchday Blog #42- Altrincham 2-2 Wrexham (4-3 Pens)
Joe Marshall- @AllSportJoe
Depending on who you ask, my latest match visit involved a trip to either Cheshire or Greater Manchester. Altrincham, a town of around 52,000 inhabitants, sits smugly on the cusp of Cheshire’s endless countryside, yet boasts the urban buzz you get from any busy, vibrant city.
This trip to the J. Davidson Stadium was for an all-National League FA Trophy fourth round tie against a club recently thrust into the world’s spotlight, Wrexham.
Getting to Altrincham from my north Manchester base was easy. The town is well served via public transport, with trains and trams the most common sources of access. I chose the tram, which, when I’m lucky, serves a direct route from Bury to Altrincham itself.
Visiting Altrincham
Arriving in Altrincham is unlike arriving to many other places in Manchester. In fairness, the town doesn’t actually have an ‘M’ postcode, with the ‘WA’, prefix a prominent feature of addresses in the area, indicating Altrincham’s close proximity to the town of Warrington.
Altrincham lies in Trafford, an affluent borough within the Greater Manchester sprawl. Altrincham is also one of the jewels in Trafford’s crown, and gets looked after as such. A well kept town, the streets are noticably clean, and closed down shops have replacements lined up, with businesses understandably desperate for a slice of the Altrincham pie. The tram stop is next door to the Planet Ice, ice rink, home to Elite League Ice Hockey team Manchester Storm. The Elite League is the top flight of UK ice hockey, and the night of this football fixture appeared to clash with a Storm home game, given the queues building outside the rink.
This was to be my third trip to the J. Davidson Stadium, and my second as a home fan. On my first visit, I was part of 400 or so Salford City fans stood in the away end on a cold November afternoon during their climb through non-league. I didn’t make an appearance on the ‘Class of 92’ documentary on that occasion, so tonight I was out to make amends, and see if the cameras would pick me out of the crowd for the much talked about ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series.
Once I was off the tram, I had a little bit of time to kill before I met my friend and his dad at the ground, so I headed for a familiar haunt for a quick pint. The town has a tremendous selection of pubs and bars, ranging from the traditional old man pub, to the modern, cosmopolitan wine bars for the young and good looking. Visiting Altrincham is always an excuse for a drink, but if that’s not your thing, there are plenty of equally trendy cafes and restaurants, as well as the famous Altrincham market.
On the aforementioned visit to Altrincham with Salford, we went into the Bricklayers Arms in Altrincham’s town centre, a pub now infamous amongst me and my uni friends for having some of the cheapest pints we had ever come across! Unfortuntately, I found out that their £2 pints had sadly felt the pinch of inflation, but my detour to the pub had successfully served its purpose and I was able to meet up with Jack and his dad inside the ground.
J. Davidson Stadium
The ground itself is at the end of a short-ish walk down Moss Lane, and for many, this street name is still the one that the J. Davidson Stadium goes by. The ground has a capacity of just over 6000 with a mixture of standing and seated areas.
To fully evaluate this ground, I will need to be mindful that my evening will have been vastly different to that of those who travelled from Wrexham. The experience served up for home fans here is very different to what an away fan encounter. With an away terrace exposed to the elements, bad weather can turn an away day into a miserable, cold, damp ordeal. Luckily for the 985 that made the trip from north Wales, the evening, as bitterly cold as it was, remained dry. The facilities are also much more pleasant for home fans, with away fans offered quite a lot less in terms of hospitality. I recall from my experience that I couldn’t get a beer in the away end, and to the best of my knowledge, this is still the case to this day. This is due to the rules that fans still legally cannot consume alcohol in view of the pitch, and with no indoor bar in the vicinity, drinking with the pitch in sight would be unavoidable in the away section.
The home fans are well catered for however, with a spacious indoor clubhouse serving a decent selection of beers and a fairly decent food selection just outside. Behind the goal opposite the away fans is the Golf Road terrace, home to the most vocal home supporters. The fans in this stand are lucky enough to be afforded a roof and are in close proximity to the clubhouse and food outlets. The clubhouse itself is built into the main stand, sponsored these days by Footy Accumulators. Despite being the tallest stand at the ground, it isn’t actually the largest in terms of numbers it can hold. The main stand is flanked to the right hand side by small family stand. Opposite the family stand, is another area for away fans to stand when the terrace behind the goal is full, and just a metal fence away from that is another covered terrace for home fans. Centrally, on this side of the pitch, there is a smaller seated stand before the terracing continues to the other end of the pitch.
It is a quirky stadium that looks great at National League level, but I think some work would need to be done to it if Altrincham were to progress to the EFL. Having said that, when I visited Harrogate Town for the first time (again with Salford), I was also confused about the mishmash nature of the layout, but that is now a thriving and popular EFL ground.
Altrincham FC
Altrincham, one of non-league football’s most historic clubs have recently gone full time, a leap forward that five years ago would have signalled some serious intent at making the step up to the Football League. However, in the wealthy climate of National League football in 2023, going full time is merely a necessary step just to compete on equal footing with your fifth tier peers.
Taking it back to the 1891 though, before the riches of foreign investment trickled down to the sacred land of non-league, Altrincham Football Club began life as Rigby Memorial Club, before shortly after, changing their name to Broadheath FC. Initially playing the Manchester League, they soon underwent another name change in 1903, becoming known as Altrincham FC, a title that has stuck around to this day.
They had a fairly successful period in the first decade of the 20th century, winning the Manchester League on two occasions as well as lifting the Cheshire Senior Cup. The end of that decade witnessed a historical moment for the club, as they moved into their Moss Lane home, where they still reside to this day.
From the end of World War One to the beginning of World War Two, Altrincham, (abbreviated to Alty) played in the Cheshire League, in which they finished as runners up on two occasions and League Cup winners once. They also reached the First Round of the FA Cup for the first time, but more on that competition later…
Fast forward a little to 1965, and a key moment in the Robins’ history occurred when they signed Jackie Swindells, a forward brought in from Newport. He scored 82 goals in his first full season for Alty (some say Erling Haaland had Jackie Swindells posters on his bedroom wall) and helped Altrincham achieve back to back Cheshire League titles. In 1968, the Northern Premier League was created and the Robins were part of its founding teams.
They had success in the FA Trophy the following decade, reaching the semi-final stage in 1977 and then went on to beat Leatherhead in the final in 1978. They twice applied for Football League election, but failed to secure the required amount of votes on both occasions. The first time they missed out, Wimbledon were the team that took that spot, so who knows, with the domino effect that we see so often in football, if Alty made it to the Football League, we could be living in a world without the existence of MK Dons!
In 1980, Altrincham missed out on election to the Football League once again, missing out by just a single vote, a vote that would have been secured had the Luton representative managed to get to the vote on time! Back on the pitch, they were successful in the early part of the 1980s, winning the newly formed Alliance League on a couple of occasions and consistently finishing in the top half. Further FA Trophy success followed, a defeat in the final to Enfield prevented a second Wembley win, but in 1985, they added to their 1978 triumph by beating Runcorn in the final. This period of success cemented the fact that the Robins were truly in their pomp.
The 1990s and 2000s saw Altrincham hop between the Conference and Conference North, a period that included a memorable 2-1 win over Eastbourne to secure promotion in a playoff final at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium. Remarkably, Altrincham survived relegation three seasons in a row, despite finishing each season in the drop zone in 2006, 2007 and 2008. This was thanks to financial and sporting sanctions applied to teams around them.
Recent history has been much the same for the Robins, just without the luck of any reprives due to others’ misfortunes. Hopping between the National League and the National League North is now a staple of their existence, as well as a briefly dipping as low as the Northern Premier League.
The future is bright now for Alty, as in the summer of 2022, they announced that they would be joining many of their National League rivals as a full time team, adding to the almost fully professional nature of the first step of England’s non-league pyramid.
The FA Cup is where the gloss is added Altrincham’s glorious history. They hold the record for the non-league side that has knocked out the most football league teams, with a staggering seventeen victories over league opposition. In their 1970s heyday, they reached the third round in four consecutive seasons. Amongst their historical scalps are teams such as Sheffield United, Crewe Alexandra, Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic. Their most recent giantkilling was in 2015, when Alty reached the second round by beating Barnsley 1-0 at Moss Lane.
Wrexham
If you want to know about the modern Wrexham, there are a million and one sources out there. They’re owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, blah blah, blah. The Hollywood and Wrexham storyline has been done to death, so I’m not going to go into it.
Wrexham are a team with serious history. They stand as Wales’ oldest professional team and the third oldest in the entire world, established in 1864. They were formed, like many others during the late 1800s, as a cricket club looking to expand their sporting aspirations. In their early years, they played mostly friendly matches, with the occasional competitive game in the Welsh cup thrown into the mix, a competition which they have always been quite successful in.
They participated in a league for the first time in 1890, when they joined The Combination League, a competition featuring teams from across northern England and the midlands. Shortly after, Wrexham made the decision to make the switch to the Welsh League. It was only a flying visit for two seasons before returning to the Combination, but they managed to win it on both occasions!
They later switched to the Birmingham League, and during this period, they won the Welsh Cup six times between 1909 and 1921. In 1921, Wrexham managed something which Altrincham, (not for the want of trying) never managed, and secured election to the Football League. Starting in the third division. Wrexham’s best-ever finish at this level was second place, which they achieved on two occasions; 1932-33 and 1946-47. In 1956-57, history was made at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground, when the Red Dragons hosted Matt Busby’s Manchester United side in front of a record-setting crowd of 34,445 in the FA Cup fourth round.
The 1960s saw a period of yo-yoing between the Third and Fourth Division, but that decade saw Wrexham’s biggest ever victory; 10-1 against Hartlepool on the way to promotion from the Fourth Division. I bet that ‘1’ still bugs them!
By the 1970s, winning the Welsh Cup had an added benefit; playing in Europe. Thanks to success in the cup in 1972, the Red Dragons were rewarded with a trip to Zurich for their first ever European game, a tie which they came through as winners, on aggregate. Their European adventure that season was ended though, by an away goals defeat to Hajduk Split. The 1973-74 season saw Wrexham go on a brilliant FA Cup run, defeating the likes of Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace on the way to the quarter finals.
The 1980s saw more European football come to town, with matches against illustrious opponents including FC Porto, AS Roma and Real Zaragoza. One of Wrexham’s finest hours came in 1992, when they beat Arsenal 2-1 in one of the most famous FA Cup giant-killings in the history of the competition, thanks to Mickey Thomas and Steve Watkin. More FA Cup heroics followed in the mid-nineties, with a 2-1 win against Ipswich Town and valiant defeat to Manchester United in 1995, followed by a fantastic run to the quarter finals in 1997, beating West Ham along the way.
The first decade of the new millennium was a challenging one for Wrexham, and despite lifting Football League Trophy victory at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in 2005, a stadium dispute and administration followed. In 2008, they were relegated to the National League, a division which they have been in ever since, with over a decade of non-league football casting an unwelcome shadow over 150 years of illustrious history.
The club is certainly now on an upwards trajectory, the Red Dragons are contending at the right end of the National League, in an incredibly close fight for the single automatic promotion spot. New ownership and bigger budgets aside, Wrexham no doubt deserve to be in the mix, playing attractive football and pulling in huge crowds to their incredible Racecourse Ground every week.
The Altrincham Experience
As mentioned before, the experience at Moss Lane will alter wildly depending on whether you’re a home fan or not. The admission was £15 which was a little cheaper than what I paid last season for a dead-rubber, end-of-season league game against Yeovil Town. Altrincham, being the affluent area that it is, probably sees this as reasonable, and truth be told, as prices in the National League sky-rocket out of control, it still appears relatively good value for the standard.
The programme was £3, but spanned just 30 pages, which, in all honesty, isn’t the greatest bang for your buck, but I will give it credit for the simplistic and classy FA Trophy inspired cover, and a few features that I found really interesting. In addition, in an age where the printed programme is dying out, if clubs need to charge an extra 50p or pound to keep it worthwhile, then so be it.
The clubhouse served a decent array of beer, and the service was really organised and fast. The sheer size of the clubhouse meant that there was plenty of space to stand when the tables inevitably filled up. In true Modern Football style, 15 minutes prior kick off saw the descent of the shutters on the clubhouse windows, to prevent the hooligans inside getting a glimpse of the game while consuming dangerous levels of alcohol.
Alty’s food selection is pretty standard and risk-free, but the queue to get it was rather long, especially in contrast to the speed at which I was served at the bar. Having said that, I do appreciate that food takes longer to serve, and you can still see the action whilst waiting (two goals went in while I was queuing for my burger), so at least that makes up for it. The burger and chips deal that I got was great too, a much larger portion than the image would suggest.
The Game
With the shutters in the clubhouse drawn, and 2,500 fans packed into the ground, the game began. The game that I hope will be coined the ‘Phil Parkinson derby’. In something that I have never seen before and probably won’t see again, both managers shared the same name! However, Altrincham’s “Parky” was the only manager that seemed to be taking the FA Trophy seriously, as the other “Parky” rung the changes in quite impressive style, almost comical style.
Amongst the Wrexham first XI was first team coach David Jones, who, despite having a wealth of experience in the Premier League and EFL, is now 38, and supposedly retired. The 11 changes from their last game against Bromley, one of which involved a member of the coaching staff taking to the field, shows just how seriously the Red Dragons were taking this game.
Unsurprisingly, Altrincham dominated the early part of the game, and took a merited lead after just 8 minutes. When Wrexham failed to deal with a corner, a long range shot from Chris Conn-Clarke came back off the bar and Lewis Baines reacted first to plant a header into the roof of the net.
Alty had the ball in the net again just a couple of minutes, later, when Marcus Dinanga tapped home at the far post after a looping header. However, the linesman’s flag denied the home side a two-goal lead, and further replays showed that there was little need for Dinanga to even get involed, as the header was probably dropping in anyway.
Wrexham had survived an early onslaught and were possibly thankful to only find themselves a goal down. However, after 15 minutes, the inexperienced side started to move the ball around in a more fluid manner. They got themselves an equaliser in the 24th minute thanks to a drilled shot from Andy Cannon, which cannoned in off Jake Bickerstaff. Cannon was initially awarded with the goal over the tannoy, due to the confusion as to who exactly got the final touch, but just as the announcer corrected the scorer to give Bickerstaff the credit he deserved, he found himself 1v1 with Ollie Byrne in the Altrincham goal. His composed low finish completed a quick-fire double as well as a rapid turnaround, and probably to both managers’ horror, Wrexham had the lead!
It remained 1-2 until half time, the remainder of the half being played at a decent tempo. For Altrincham, it is unlikely that they will be relegated this season, but equally unlikely that they’ll be in the promotion hunt, so securing a day out at Wembley in the FA Trophy could serve as a useful priority. As for Wrexham, they are certainly in the promotion hunt, but nights like this could serve as great opportunities for fringe players to force themselves into Phil Parkinson’s plans. This meant that this game meant a lot to both sets of players, even if it didn’t mean an awful lot to one of the clubs as a whole.
The dawning of the second half left me pondering where to go. Although Moss Lane has plenty of clearly differentiated stands, home fans have free rein to wander around to whichever stand they feel. For the second half, we elected to stand opposite the main stand, staring at some big yellow and black writing that was urging me to put a bet on.
Over the course of the second half, Alty pushed for an equaliser, but that doesn’t mean that it was one way traffic for the whole half. No, in fact Wrexham were close to extending their lead, Byrne denying James Jones from a tight angle in the 51st minute, just after the visitors had a strong case for a penalty waved away. Wrexham had several long range efforts that forced the goalkeeper into action, but it was the introduction of Ben Pringle for the home side that turned the game.
Even with the final whistle edging closer, Altrincham remained patient in their approach, avoiding the frustration that could have been induced thanks to Wrexham’s incredibly organised shape. After a patient build up that Pringle was at the heart of, the ball was played low across the box, and the clearance fell to Zak Goodson who drilled a low drive into the bottom corner to square the game with ninety seconds of normal time left.
The beauty of the FA Trophy means that common sense has been applied, meaning the game was to have an outcome on the night. No replay. Not even any extra time. Straight to penalties.
Wrexham took first, and it was Jake Bickerstaff looking to put the ball in the net for a third time who did the honours. His strong penalty was matched by a remarkable save by Byrne, and Altrincham cemented their advantage in the shootout thanks to Conn-Clarke’s cooly converted kick, despite a horrible, aesthetically sickening stuttering run up.
Sam Dalby got Wrexham off the mark in the shootout with a strike into the top corner, but Goodson maintained Alty’s 100% record with another one rolled beautifully into the corner. The next Wrexham penalty was a disaster, Reece Hall-Johnson clearing the bar and the despairing visiting fans behind the goal, his miss giving John Lundstram the chance to really put the home team in the driving seat with next penalty. However, it was a chance that he could not take, Lundstram’s kick flying well wide of Rob Lainton’s left post.
This kept the score at 2-1, but James Jones made it 2 each with his next kick, putting huge pressure on Connor Jennings. Jennings, unfazed by the pressure, smashed his penalty home into the top corner. Harry Lennon was next up for Wrexham, and although he scored, his team were now relying on Lainton making a save from Toby Mullarkey to stay in the competition. The end result was in no doubt, however, as Mullarkey smashed his penalty into the right hand corner, sending Lainton the wrong way, and with it, booked his team a place in round five of the FA Trophy.
The defeat for Wrexham will mean nothing in the bigger picture if they manage to secure promotion this season, but it was evident that the home fans saw this as a real scalp. Wrexham’s first team have been almost untouchable in the league this season, and despite the changes, Altrincham saw this win as a bit of a statement, and some of the younger fans saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate their happiness by running onto the pitch. Many on Twitter saw this as an opportunity to ridicule Alty, but in my opinion, it was harmless, and everyone was in a positive, far from confrontational mood. So let them crack on.
This was an entertaining game, and despite going up against another sporting event in the local area (Manchester Storm lost 6-3 to big rivals Sheffield Steelers), it attracted a healthy crowd. I like Moss Lane as a stadium, but I can see why it remains unpopular for away fans in the National League. Manchester weather combined with an unconvered terrace can’t always make for a pleasant afternoon. In the home end, the experience is much more enjoyable, and as a day out, with plenty of pubs, cafes and bars nearby, I would highly recommend it.
Final score: Altrincham 2-2 Wrexham (4-3 pens)
Attendance: 2526
Admission: £15
Programme: £3