Alport (0) 2 Barnton (1) 2
 
Alport’s first pre-season friendly ended in a creditable 2-2 draw against Barnton. The Cheshire side – promoted last season to the North West Counties Premier Division – led at half-time through an early Chris Smith goal and doubled their advantage five minutes after the break, when Matty Clarke struck at the back post. But Alport’s newly assembled side battled hard and deservedly got back into the game with 20 minutes remaining when the impressive Matty Ashbrook punished slack marking from a corner. And in the 86th minute Mike Blundell coolly converted a neat Dan Tinsley pass to level the scores.
 
The last time the two teams met was on Easter Monday and Barnton re-wrote their history books to inflict a demoralising 11-1 defeat against a struggling Whitchurch side. But there was never any sign of a repeat with the Reds showing plenty of panache on the ball, and demonstrating high energy levels throughout which saw them finish the stronger of the two sides. Although behind at the halfway stage, Alport stuck to their guns and were really unfortunate to fall further behind after going close twice in a minute just before Clarke struck. Goalkeeper Matt Conkie did well to turn aside Si Everall’s goalbound effort and brother Carl saw his header kept out by teammate Ashbrook who simply couldn’t get out of the way. The 18 year old kept going and was a constant threat down the left hand side and he was on hand to turn the ball home from a Stevie McNichol corner to give Alport a timely boost. They kept pressing and when Blundell ran clear of a static Barnton back line, his finish was exemplary and saw the game end 2-2.
 
Assistant manager Tony Ledwards was pleased with the side’s first run out. “I thought we started the game slowly which you might expect from a group that’s never played together before. I thought both teams had good spells of the game. We had a 15-20 minute purple patch in the second half and yet sometimes in the first 45 minutes we didn’t get close enough to them. We had chances to maybe sneak it in the end but I don’t think there are too many better keepers in the NWC than Matt Cronkie and he made some really good saves today. We’ll continue to look at certain roles for certain players, different shapes and formations, and we’ve got another six friendly games to make sure we’re ready for August 6th. Our primary aim will be to make ourselves hard to beat both home and away, and then build on that as the season progresses.”
 
Team (WAFC):
 
Roberts
 
Evans
Everall
Tinsley
Ledwards
 
Twigg
McNichol
Prince
 
Blundell
Everall S
Ashbrook
 
Subs:
 
Minshall
Thomas
Marley
Tinsley D
Coles
Taylor
Hartley
Rimmer