Atherton LR 0 Alport 1
Substitute Mike Blundell converted a 57th minute penalty to give Alport the points in a scrappy affair away at Atherton. The striker had only been on the pitch 10 minutes when he was fouled in the box, resulting in not only a penalty, but reducing the hosts to 10 men after Marvin Moyo picked up a second booking just minutes after receiving a first yellow card. This wasn’t vintage Alport and was possibly their poorest performance on the road since their only defeat away at Holker in the middle of August. Since then, the Reds have clocked up impressive wins at Oswestry, Stockport, Widnes, Charnock, Liverpool and now, Atherton.
Alport kicked uphill in the first half at Crilly Park after the hosts won an important coin toss and it took a superb save from Danny Read to keep out a Ryan Longsdon volley midway through the first half. In fairness, that was a s close as Atherton came to scoring in the entire 90 minutes while Alport had several good chances to make the last minutes of the game far less nervy. Matty Ashbrook headed wide after 27 minutes and Louis Murray in the home goal was grateful to collect a header after Louis James and Elliot Ledwards attacked an Ashbrook free kick.
Alport made a change in the early throes of the second half with Blundell replacing an out of sorts Dan Tinsley. And the switch was soon to pay dividends with Blundell lashing his spot kick right into the bottom corner to delight the Whitchurch fans who’d made the journey. Ashbrook and Dean Twigg both shot straight at Murray as the Reds looked to tighten the screw, and James saw a shot find the side netting with 15 minutes to play. But the best chance fell to top scorer Si Everall two minutes from time when a superb diagonal from James totally took out the home defenders leaving Everall with a clear route to goal. With Murray way off his line, a lob would have been the best option but the skipper seemed to be caught in two minds and attempted to take the ball past Murray. In the end, the only heart-in-mouth moment was when Atherton were awarded a free-kick in the dying seconds of normal time but Read easily gathered and the visitors ran the clock down. The win took Alport to within a point of both City of Liverpool and Charnock Richard with all three sides having played 15 games.