IT’S THREE AND EASY FOR JORD AND ALTY!
Altrincham boss Phil Parkinson continues to turn around the fortunes of this sleeping Non-League giant, as they turned on the style with an impressive performance to knock out Ramsbottom Town.
Jordan Hulme’s first hattrick in Alty colours, cancelled out Sam Heathcote’s early strike for the visitors, before James Poole added a late fourth to give the Cheshire side a chance of a cup run.
Parkinson said: “I’ve been to the semi-final with Nantwich, and they’re a smaller team than Altrincham, so we’ll go as far as this team possibly can.
“I love playing in cup competitions. Obviously we’ve got the league to think about, but we’ll try and go as far as we can in all the cups we’re in.”
But it was the visitors who took a surprising lead with barely 90 seconds on the clock – a defensive mix-up allowed exAlty man Heathcote space on the edge of the area to twist his body round and smash the ball into the bottom corner.
A few minutes later Gregg Daniels’ rasping shot was expertly tipped over the bar by Anthony Thompson – who is rapidly proving himself to be the Robins first-choice stopper – before Luke Thompson headed over a corner, as Rammy looked as though they might defy expectations.
But Altrincham were not about to allow the contest to be an upset when they are in such good form, and after Hulme headed in John Johnson’s corner on 17 minutes, the hosts took total control of the game.
Johnston was terrorising Ramsbottom down the left and twice cut inside and tested Danny Taberner’s gloves, before again providing an assist for Hulme from a corner in the 34th minute – this time the striker turned smartly in the box and smashed into the top corner.
Parkinson was quick to praise his forward line: “We’ve got lads that score goals.
“He [Johnston] was frightening today, we switched JJ to the other side to try and exploit Dean Stott at the back.
“We’ve been working on his end product, to try and pick out a player, not just put the ball into an area. And I think