Altrincham 1

by Mike Crockett at Gateshead International Stadium.

MOST of us with more than a passing interest in football agree that ten men can be harder to play against than eleven.

Famously, England took Argentina all the way to penalties in the World Cup; and more recently, Manchester United succeeded in extra-time against Arsenal, after having lost skipper Roy Keane.

Back here in the physical, and occasionally downright dangerous Unibond league, ten men can more than make up for the missing player.

In this highly competitive fixture, Gateshead keeper Adrian Swan found himself ordered off the field after a mere 14 minutes, and it should be noted that they survived almost a full hour with full-back Richie Ward between the sticks.

Although some fans, including those of Altrincham allegiance, were amazed at referee Kelly's decision, it was a red-card offence, because he denied Keith Russell a direct scoring opportunity when the striker was clean through the home defence.

Ricky Harris eventually beat the stand-in keeper on 73 minutes with a trademark, flicked-on header.

The free-kick after the red card came to nothing as Robertson's effort beat the wall but flashed the wrong side of the right-hand post.

Russell, no worse for wear after his clash with Swan, latched on to a poor back pass shortly after, but watched his first-time shot shave the other post.

Paul Robertson, one of the front-runners for "Player of the Season" saved Alty's skin on 20 minutes with a double header off the line when Stuart Coburn found himself dangerously out of position.

Chances for Harris and Robertson went begging and Steve Bowey and Paul Proudlock answered with chances for the home side.

On 45 minutes, the influential Paul Ellender had the ball in the net but the strike was ruled offside with very little protests.

Second half chances for Russell and Lovelock, who had replaced Jason Gallagher, failed to break the deadlock, and Ellender repeated his first half exploits with another goal, with this one being chopped off for a foul.

For all their possession and territorial advantage, Altrincham just could not convert. Shots were woefully weak and crosses were badly timed

That is, until Harris netted on 73 minutes. From then on, the whistle could not come soon enough for the travelling Robins fanatics who had made the trip to Tyneside.

It finished 1-0 to Altrincham and the Robins clocked up their 21st win of a gruelling league campaign and Stuart Coburn's 20th clean sheet of the season.

On the way out of the impressive International Stadium, the fans simply didn't have enough songs to sing.

Robins: Coburn, Hodson, Adams, Timons, Ellender, Robertson, Gallagher (Sub Lovelock), Power, Talbot, Harris, Russell (Hardy). Sub not used Kielty.

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