Altrincham 1 Lancaster 0 LANCASTER City were once again robbed by the man in black on Tuesday night. A match full of dodgy refereeing decisions was capped in the 88th minute when Gary Worthington was clearly fouled in the penalty area. The ref saw it as obstruction and gave an indirect free kick and when the kick was taken, Lancaster were denied by a handball on the line which the ref overlooked. To add insult to injury the man in black nearly handed Altrincham a goal just before half time when he failed to see Tony Kelly and Neill Hardy offside. That mistake nearly proved costly when they only had the 'keeper to beat but Kennedy came out and made a crucial tackle to save the day as Hardy's weak effort was cleared by Gary Worthington.

City started off well and in the 8th minute Mark Goulding challenged for the ball on the edge of Altrincham's box, won it and then fired in a shot which troubled Altrincham's keeper Matt Dickens.

Then in the 15th minute City came close again. Charlie Boyd ran towards Altrincham's defence and somehow fired in a dangerous shot which curled just wide.

But then there was a huge blow for the City camp when Dave Lancaster was subbed off after a nasty clash. He needed help to walk off the pitch and it looked quite serious.

And it got worse for City in the 40th minute when they went 1-0 down. A long ball to Stuart Terry was not intercepted and his shot, which was going in, was cheekily tapped in the net by Tony Kelly.

There was still plenty of hope left as Stuart Phillips showed in the 42nd minute. Phillips won the ball and then struck it on the volley from 35 yards but his shot went just over.

The second half saw both Boyd and Worthington come close but City's luck had deserted them.

Team: Kennedy, Phillips, Worthington, Hartley, Flannery, Leitch (Banks), Boyd, Martin, Lancaster (Cheal), Dobie, Goulding

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