ALTRINCHAM put the disappointment of dropped points against Accrington Stanley and Whitby Town behind them on Monday with a tidy 3-1 win over Lancaster City.

Goals came from Richard Landon, Mark Quayle and Phil Power, while Chris Ward replied for Tony Hesketh's men.

Landon was on from the start and the striker kept up his impressive record of scoring shortly after coming on, notching the first after 15 minutes.

Quayle, who looks to be a real find, added a second six minutes later, before disaster struck.

A chase for a loose ball, early in the second half, saw Quayle come off second best and he was stretchered off for the second time in four games.

Phil Power replaced him and kept the goal-scoring tradition up with a 70th minute strike which put too much daylight between the teams for the visitors to cope with.

Had Quayle stayed on the park and played the way he started, a Messenger man-of-the-match award would have been a definite maybe.

As it turned out, it was midfielder Steve Hawse who scooped this particular prize.

A real grafter in the Mick Carmody mould, he rarely put a foot wrong for the whole afternoon, and he seems equally at home dropping back as he is pushing forward.

He had the first real chance of note inside ten minutes when he received a cut back from winger Kevin Ellison - who was full of running as usual - but his lusty shot from 15 yards flew over.

Quayle, who has just recovered from one of the worst head wounds ever seen on the Moss Lane treatment table, made Alty's opener for Richard Landon.

A through-ball drew Lancaster keeper Paul Horridge out and Quayle leapt to challenge him in the air. A collision occurred and Landon pounced on the loose ball to notch the opener.

When you take into consideration that his head wound was caused in exactly the same kind of collision, it was a real triumph of enthusiasm over past experience.

Quayle had poor goalkeeping to thank for his first and his team's second six minutes later, when Horridge failed to claim a shot from him.

Painfully slow to react, Horridge could only watch as Quayle blasted the ball home from short range.

The goals did not stop there as City hit back with a goal from 19 year-old Chris Ward, a transfer target of both Burnley and Manchester City.

Speaking of transfer targets, Danny Adams was recalled to the side after a drop in training standards which boss Mark Ward found unacceptable.

Referee Paul Gerrard was guilty of the biggest slip of the day.

He pulled out a yellow card for Kevin Ellison on 68 minutes after Horridge had brought him down outside the box.

Presumably, the card was for diving, but Gerrard seemed to be the only person in the ground who saw a text-book scytheing Patrick Viera would have been proud of.

It turned out to be of little importance, however, as Phil Power netted the third two minutes later with a neat little shot on the turn.

A handy three points this early in the season which maintains the teams 100% home record.

Robins: Coburn, Crowe, Adams, Maddox, Talbot, Ward, Gallagher, Hawse, Landon (sub Scheuber 65), Quayle (Power 48), Ellison. Sub not used: Steve Porter.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.