Altrincham will be playing outside the top level of non-league football for a first time since 2005 after suffering a dramatic relegation at the end of a traumatic campaign. With optimism high after securing their highest league finish in a long time, few people within the club could envisage such a disastrous start of the campaign as the one the Robins had. The club played decent football but was missing something in the final part and suddenly the confidence of the players was shot. Alty was sitting at the foot of the table after nine games, winning just a point during this run and soon after that long-serving manager Graham Heathcote was relieved of his duties in the hope of reversing the downward spiral. Ken McKenna took charge and quickly started rebuilding the belief within the squad. But with finances tight, such a part-time club was always going to struggle to get out of trouble and one good step was followed by two wrong. A few good results could not steer them to safety and they remained inside the bottom four throughout the campaign. The sense of doom and gloom was intensified after losing 7:0 at Crawley and then 4:0 at Cambridge a week after. However, the team started to come to life in the early weeks of the new year and surprise away wins at Rushden & Diamonds and Mansfield gave the team hope. Slowly but surely they started making up the gap and it looked for a while that they might go on and secure a place above the drop zone. However, the momentum was lost a little bit after a few defeats and even a five-game unbeaten run at the end of March could not see them pull clear as it coincided with other teams picking up points as well. Alty needed a win at Grimsby in their penultimate game to still have hope and the 1:0 victory definitely gave them a chance. Indeed, had they won against Eastbourne Borough on the final game of the season, they would have been saved but they contrived to lose 3:4 at home to the already relegated side and it was an agonising relegation at the end. It was tough on Alty who paid the price for a very poor start of the season and since then they have had quite a few good results but now they will need to rebuild and will look to bounce straight back up.
