Altrincham finish a very good and successful first season back in the top level of non-league football as they managed to retain their place for next season with quite a lot to spare. Having sneaked in past the play-offs from the Conference North in the previous season, and with a pretty small and modest squad, the Greater Manchester side were expected spend most of the campaign at the bottom of the table. Peter Cavanagh and Steven Gillespie were the two main additions to the squad, both experienced players coming from the Football League, but it was mostly the same squad that earned promotion. Damian Reeves was to be the main provider of goals while the pace on the wings was another feature of Alty’s game. They struggled for most of the first month of the season, even if they pulled off a shock 2:1 win over Bristol Rovers, losing all five of the other opening six games. But the team was showing spirit and commitment in their games and were not too far away from positive results in a number of their outings. That said, a thumping 4:0 home loss at the hands of a poor Welling side in late September set the alarm bells ringing as as the team dropped to second from bottom. It proved as something of a wake-up call for the squad and the reaction was very positive, with wins over the very strong Macclesfield and Halifax sides in the next couple of games, seeing the team climb up the table. The 3:1 win against the latter was an especially memorable result, coming against one of the best home sides in the division, and saw a very driven and effective showing from the entire side. It proved the benchmark for the remainder of the season and Lee Sinnott’s side were never really in serious danger from then on, getting some good results on frequent basis. A run of four wins in seven games in late autumn stabilised the position in mid-table further. The encouraging run of form did not slow down in the early weeks of 2015 as Altrincham recorded a superb seven wins in 11 games, losing just two games in a two-and-a-half month stretch. Their game plan was pretty basic but it was working well, with the midfield providing a solid base for the defence and Reeves and the wingers proving too hot to handle for opposition defences in most weeks. Nevertheless, a let-down was pretty inevitable for a small part-time squad and the results in the spring were mostly poor. But the team maintained their levels of commitment and dedication and secured a few more decent results to eventually finish at 17th place.
