Robins prove too much for United

United went down to their second defeat to Blue Square Premier opposition in four days as they were beaten 3-0 by Altrincham at Moss Lane on Tuesday night.

Despite the scoreline it was United who began the better and pushed forward early looking to pressurise the Robins’ defence with good penetrating runs coming form Adam Carden on the right forcing a couple of early corners.

But nothing came of the early pressure and when Altrincham pushed forward they took the lead. Alex Meechan’s shot was spilled by Sam Ashton into the path of on-form striker Chris Senior who easily slotted home to put the Robins one up with only seven minutes on the clock.

The United side had a different look to the one which took to the field on Saturday and players took time to find their form, for some of them it was their first appearance of the pre-season campaign.

Forward Carlos Roca showed glimpses of his ability; against his former club, with a lovely nutmeg and run but United were never troubling the opposition goal in the first half.

Having said that the game was fairly even in the first half with both sides fighting well for possession and neither really pushing through and creating any clear-cut chances.

After the interval, Margy chose to change several faces, bringing in a few fresh legs and United’s performance picked up.

There was a zip to the play and real tempo to how the ball was being knocked about and for the first 15 minutes it was hard to separate the teams in terms of ability as United more than held their own.

The Reds created good chances with young Danny Allen going close from the edge of the box and Nick Robinson missing a gilt-edged chance when Robins’ ’keeper Andy Ralph spilled to him on the edge of the box.

However, it always felt like the conference side had the ability to make United pay for those missed chances and they duly did on the hour mark when Senior grabbed his second of the game (and eighth in four pre-season games) with a spectacular control and overhead kick from 12 yards out which left Ashton stranded.

Senior had a great chance not long after when he found space in the box and rattled the crossbar with a vicious right footed shot that would have seen him take the match ball home.

As the game wore on the Robins’ seemed to pull away from United. Whether it was in terms of ability or fitness is a matter of debate but the home team certainly took over in the final 20 minutes.

Altrincham sealed the victory with a third goal when defender Gerg Young powerfully headed home with less than 10 minutes on the clock, a goal which Ashton would have again felt he could have done better on.

So United were beaten by Conference opposition once more and Margy will have to remind his players that tonight’s game was about fitness and testing themselves rather than the result.

Next up; Saturday the Reds travel to Tamworth but more importantly the beginning of the season is now less than a month away.

Report by Craig Phillips