ALTY-GETHER NOW

 National League: Woking 2 Altrincham 3

12th August 2023.

It can be a challenge sometimes trying to formulate a plan on where to visit on a Saturday afternoon. Spending a Friday evening agonizing over the myriad travel options to get to a game in the Hampshire Premier League, or working out just how long it would take to walk from a remote train station to a playing field in Berkshire. Factor in a six-year old who likes trundling along and stopping for no reason, throwing some dance moves in, and suddenly the three o'clock kick-off time can loom large, with only one of the party nervously looking at their watch. So, gingerly prodding the beast marked "train travel" on a day when there were ASLEF strikes in operation, we found we could chance leaving the Rushmoor area for a match. With my wife helping a friend move house, I nobly took our daughter for a trip to, um, Woking. Am nice like that.

Woking. Altrincham. Two big names from when I started watching non-league football. Back then, I'd read  the reports on them in the Non-League Paper, and they were kind of exotic. My early knowledge of European Football (and geography in general) was influenced by Midweek Sports Special, and Sportsnight. Watching the grainy footage of the midweek European games meant that names like Honved, IFK Gothenburg, Dynamo Kiev and Steaua Bucharest were romantic, intriguing and got my developing interest in football going. The Non-League Paper, and Non-League Monthly magazine did the same for the likes of Barrow, Wealdstone, Kettering,and Kidderminster (with the best will in the world, I'm sure this is the first time Barrow has been described as exotic). Woking hit the national conscience in 1991 when a Tim Buzaglo (even that name suggests glamour) inspired team beat West Brom in the FA Cup, before bravely departing the competition at Goodison Park in Round Four. The only time I had previously seen Woking play was later the same year. They visited Claremont Road to play a Hendon team who nearly didn't exist - the week before, the ground had been closed for the second time in two years. Despite being in the same division, it felt like The Big Boys were in town, especially with the spike in attendance - though there was no benevolence from the visitors beyond the much needed swelling of the club match-day coffers: Hendon were dispatched by five clear goals, and I don't remember it being that close.

Kingfield was, until 3pm on Saturday, the nearest ground that myself and my daughter hadn't visited. Having friends who are Aldershot fans, it was always frowned upon whenever I raised the suggestion that I might go and watch a game at Kingfield. Coupled with the £20 admission fee, I've been happy to let it slide and go elsewhere. However, looking at the white stripe indicating an un-visited ground on the Futbology app, among the sea of light blue started to nibble away at a level of OCD I didn't know I had. So, bullet bitten, snacks packed, and phones fully charged, we set off on our adventure, which is probably overselling a one-stop train journey. The Women's World Cup gave us a welcome chance to make some friends - a kindly lady visiting her son in London watched the Australian penalty shoot-out victory over France on my phone with us, whilst the train journey meant we bonded with a mother and daughter on their way into London to take in a show over England's chances against Colombia. The Lionesses victory was a game we watched whilst nibbling on lunch in the local shopping centre, celebrating Russo's winning strike drawing some sideways glances from the other Saturday afternoon shoppers. 

Not having been to Kingfield before, and only having seen clips of the ground on television, I didn't really know what to expect. And it's a strange ground visually - half the ground is given over to old school non-league terracing (the home end covered) one proper non-league seated stand, and then one big, shiny all-seated stand, that completely jars with its surroundings. Not that it's ugly or aesthetically unpleasing - and there are other grounds, even locally, which look like four different people were given a stand each to play with and to hell with the optics - just that it's rather space age in comparison to the rest of the ground.  The fan zone was spacious, and the pleasant steward handing out free sticker albums to all the kids was eagerly snapped up by my daughter, even though we already had this years Women's World Cup album. The portakabin-cum-club shop was a little cramped, though as somebody in the very cosy queue pointed out, it was the first home game of the season the new kit was out, and the place probably wouldn't be as busy again all season. The 68 travelling Altrincham fans did rattle around a lot on the uncovered terrace, which ran the length of the far touchline, the advantage being that they could swap ends at half time if they so chose. 

Not that they would have minded this minor inconvenience, I'm sure. They started on fire - a break down the left, saw Altrincham's winger square the ball across the area. Woking's defence looked like they had it covered, and Linney appeared to have let it run across him too far, but his stretch and shot were expertly controlled, guiding the ball back across Will Jääskeläinen to give the visitors the lead. However, the lead only lasted ten minutes, when Scott Cuthbert slammed home a loose ball from a free-kick. Another ten minutes, another goal - this time the hosts taking the lead. A fine run and cross from the left was headed home with a proper centre-forward's header from Reece Grego-Cox, morphing into Mick Harford for a brief moment. Still the first-half fun wasn't over, with another Altrincham attack down the left pulled back to the edge of the box and Matt Kosylo calmly side-footing into the top corner. All things considered, probably about deserved at the break.

The second half carried on in the same form, Alty retaking the lead with another fine finish across the keeper by Linney. The two Alty forwards - Linney and Conn-Clarke - led the line so well all game. Altrincham were general impressive - effective and simple, organised, and did all the basics well. To be fair, Woking played quite well. They attempted to maintain possession, and had some skillful operators in the middle of the park.  As the game wore on, Woking started to dictate possession more as Altrincham went into "what we have, we hold" mode. A few late flurries and attacks caused flutters in the visiting defence, with one fine reactive save from Ross in injury time from a deflected free-kick the closest Woking came to sharing the spoils. The ref blew for full-time and the Altrincham players went over to celebrate with their well-travelled fans.

It was a nice day out, an entertaining game, and Woking are a decent club. Not that I can probably tell my Aldershot supporting friends that....