Alport 2 Carlisle City 1
 
Alport maintained their unbeaten start to the season with this win over Carlisle City at Yockings Park. The Reds were two up at the break when it really could have been five or six and after City got themselves back in the match early in the second half, it made for a nervy ending when the cigars should have been lit well before Carlisle halved the deficit.
 
The visitors preparation for the game could hardly have been worse. A three hour journey turned into a four hour one due to an incident on the motorway, and the coach didn’t pull into the Black Park Road Stadium until 40 minutes before kick-off.  When the game did get underway, City were behind in less than two minutes. A superb move down the right ended with Nick Marley fizzing the ball in at the near post and there was Luke Walley to give Whitchurch the perfect start.
 
And when Ben Mills – a 24th minute substitute for the injured Si Everall – was felled in the box, it gave Mike Blundell a glorious chance to make it 2-0 on the half hour. But Blundell’s spot kick clipped the top of the bar and went over with keeper Michael Ballantyne diving the other way. It was the striker’s first penalty miss in three years, but he responded well to lash the ball home two minutes later from a Stevie McNichol corner. That inspired a fifteen minute purple spell which could easily have seen Mills bag a quickfire hat-trick and put the game to bed for Alport. He was unlucky to see a shot smack the base of a post but was guilty of a poor miss when Blundell’s cross should have brought a third goal for the home side in first half stoppage time. But with 8 feet high and eight yards across to aim at and direct the ball anywhere, Mills could only find Ballantyne who shouldn’t have been given any chance to save.
 
At the resumption, Robert McCartney got Carlisle right back in it with a shot from outside the box which went into the net via an upright, and the away team suddenly carried a threat. Ballantyne made a great save to deny Mills from a powerful header and made a more routine stop to thwart Marley. Danny Read made a cracking save at the other end to push a shot wide but that was the closest City came to nicking a point. And with Alport always a goal threat, Ballantyne had the last word with another really good save to turn over a great Mills effort.
 
On another day, Mills might have scored five or six goals of his own and few would argue that Alport deserved this win – despite a plucky effort from a decent Carlisle outfit.