Phil Parkinson has urged Altrincham fans to turn The J.Davidson Stadium into a fortress after the Robins reclaimed fourth place in the National League with an emphatic 3-0 win against Rochdale on Saturday.

It was the first time Rochdale have visited Moss Lane for a league game, and Parkinson’s in-form side rose to the challenge with a goal by Justin Amaluzor shortly before half time and two in as many minutes in the second half from Regan Linney and Chris Conn-Clarke.

A bumper crowd of almost 3,500 indicated the growing number of Alty fans buying in to an increasingly compelling push for the play-offs, but Parkinson demanded more as he outlined the importance of a packed ground for every remaining home game.

“My message to fans throughout the region is I want more of you here,” said the Alty boss, whose side face another test of their promotion credentials in Saturday’s live TNT Sports fixture at Aldershot. “It’s brilliant that our fanbase is getting bigger all the time, but I want to see even greater numbers coming through the turnstiles every home game between now and the end of the season.

“If we’re averaging 2,000-plus now, can we make that 2,500-plus? What I’d say to those who already attend is do you know anyone in the area who follows football but doesn’t already come to our games? If you do, bring them along and get them hooked on watching us. You know they will enjoy it - if you can’t enjoy watching Alty at the moment, you never will.

“I’m not getting carried away just because we are winning against some of the better teams in the division. We’ve got to keep doing things right, but I do want to create a connection between us and as big a support base as possible.

“We want to be a Football League team, and one of the requirements for that is building support, so get along and make this place a fortress, because it really does make a difference.”