REPORT | Altrincham 4-1 Wealdstone

A second half collapse from Wealdstone saw Altrincham run out 4-1 winners on Tuesday night at the J Davidson Stadium.

Despite a dominant first half, that saw the Stones open the scoring with Charlie Barker, they were soon pegged back by Alex Newby's equaliser against the run of play.

And there was no second half resurgence as goals from George Wilson, Lewis Banks and Regan Linney wrapped up the game for the hosts.

Stones boss David Noble made three changes to the side that drew with Kidderminster Harriers on the weekend, with all three of his used subs on Saturday now in the eleven in Mason Barrett, Manny Duku and Aaron Henry.

It was the brightest of starts from the Stones who immediately put their lofty hosts under pressure, with Micah Obiero forcing an important stop from Ethan Ross just six minutes in.

Henry was next to sting the palms of the Altrincham goalkeeper with a rasping effort on 20 minutes that was pushed away.

Ross made his best save of the game on 32 minutes to deny Duku from close range after some intricate work from Max Kretzschmar and Brandon Mason to find the forward.

And the Stones took a deserving lead from the resulting corner when Barker poked home Henry's corner from close range.

But against the run of play the hosts equalised moments later. Newby capitalised on an error at the back to slot past Marcus Dewhurst and Barker who was on the line defending.

He nearly sent the hosts into half time ahead just a minute later with a replica effort, this time he fired wide of the far post. A deficit at half time would've been unjust for the dominant Stones.

However, the hosts came out punching in the second half and landed the knockout blow just a minute into the half when Wilson smashed in an effort from 20 yards after Newby had cut the ball back for him.

The game was almost put to bed a minute later when Linney's effort deflected first off Barker, then Henry, to bounce off the corner of the crossbar and post.

Altrincham's right-back Banks did just that on the hour mark though, finishing off some one-touch football with a goal placed in the inside top corner of Dewhurst's goal.

And an uncharacteristic catastrophic pass from Stones skipper Jack Cook was collected by Linney on 72 minutes, allowing the striker to slot past Dewhurst with a rebounded effort.

The away side will not dwell and now look ahead to some Good Friday football away at relegated Oxford City at Marsh Lane in a 3pm kick off.

WEALDSTONE: Dewhurst, Barrett, Cook (c), Barker, Mundle-Smith, Young, Henry, Kretzschmar (Bowen 84), Obiero, Mason (Cesay 67), Duku.

Subs not used: Adams, Andrews, Seaman.

Attendance: 1,740 (including 37 Wealdstone supporters)

Report by Chris Woods