SHRIMPERS’ MISERY GOES ON AS REGAN FIRES ROBINS
ALTRINCHAM left it late to steal the points at home to struggling Southend United in a tepid affair from the J.Davidson Stadium.
A Regan Linney penalty with ten minutes to go sealed victory and inflicted a sixth straight league defeat on the visitors that extinguishes any late hopes of a play-off push.
Alty road their luck at times but assistant boss Neil Sorvel was delighted with the outcome. “We lived dangerously at times, but it’s so nice for us to get a clean sheet, it feels a long time coming,” he said.
“That pleases me the most. Along with the performance of Josh Lundstram; he and Isaac [Marriott] are really effective in the middle of the park.
“It was scrappy at times, but we did enough. I thought we controlled the game early on but then they started to put it on us and we had to deal with a lot of direct balls. But our back three dealt with it very well and looked in control.”
The Robins started the brighter of the two teams, with Miles Welch-Hayes heading over from close range in the 10th minute, just before Aaron Bennett curled an effort just wide from the edge of the area.
But the Blues regrouped and began to carve out some golden opportunities of their own. On the half hour, a pinpoint cross from Cav Miley found the unmarked Nathan Ralph at the far post but his header agonisingly clipped the woodwork and bounced wide.
The visitors should’ve been in front ten minutes later when a Harry Taylor effort was parried to Jack Bridge inside the sixyard-box but a remarkable sliding block from Lewis Baines somehow kept the ball out of the net.
Both sides struggled after the break and a lack of quality in the final third limited chances created. On the hour, Bennett played in Jordan Hulme, who took a touch to lose his defender inside the box but his effort curled just the wrong side of the post.
The, on 80 minutes,, substitute Linney was clipped on the edge of the area by Ralph, referee Steven Copeland pointed to the spot and Linney stepped up and confidently tucked the ball into the corner.
Southend had one more glorious opening left in them, however, when a loose ball spilled to Callum Powell inside the area, but the substitute could only fire wide, to the frustration of Shrimpers boss Kevin Maher.
“We were on top throughout the game with the chances we created, but let’s take luck out of it, if you don’t score goals; you’re susceptible to this happening,” Maher warned.
“We knew coming here would be tough, with the conditions, we know what they’re about. And we made attacking changes, but nothing seems to work. But we will keep going. We need to put an end to this run.”