Alport (0) 1 Alsager Town (0) 2
Whitchurch Alport suffered a second successive home defeat as Alsager Town came from behind to win the game 10 minutes from time. In a bruising encounter, the Reds went in front early in the second half through an Alex Hughes penalty but two goals from Kyle Diskin gave Alsager the points.
Alport had made two signings on the day of the game with former Shrewsbury and Crewe midfielder Kev Street and Jordan Elcock both joining the Reds Revolution. And a bumper crowd of 191 – easily Alport’s best of the season – saw a pulsating encounter that might have gone either way.
There was nothing at all between the sides in an open first half, but Town’s Michael Lennon was unlucky to see a cute flick at the near post brush the far one with Danny Read rooted to the spot.
But five minutes into the second half, Street was hacked down just inside the area and the referee pointed to the spot. Alas, it was one of very few decisions the match official got right all evening. Hughes stepped up to plant the spot-kick past impressive Town keeper, Chris Fletcher and give the hosts the vital breakthrough.
Matty Ashbrook brought a fine save from Fletcher just before the hour before the away side levelled midway through the second half. Josh Glover was allowed the freedom of Yockings to bulldoze his way to the edge of the box and when he was fouled, the punishment was devastating. Diskin blasted the ball into the bottom corner of Read’s net and we were back where we started.
There were plenty of niggly challenges but the weak match official didn’t seem up to handling a game of this magnitude and the bulk of them went unchallenged. Another free-kick eventually saw Alsager over the line. Diskin delivered the ball towards the back stick and it eluded everyone in a crowded area to sneak in with one bounce.
Alsager dug in and their physical approach ended up being effective. Had the referee and his assistants managed to control the game from the outset, it might have been a different evening. As it turned out, Whitchurch were denied a point their efforts deserved against a Town side that returned to the top of the Hallmark Security League on the back of this win.