Altrincham were looking to build on a very good previous season when they staved off relegation with something to spare. Lee Sinnott had certainly overachieved during that campaign and was determined to keep the good work with the Lancashire side. But bad fortune struck early for the Robins as they lost two huge players for the rest of the season very early on. First top defender Tom Marshall dislocated his ankle in an impressive 2:1 win over Grimsby in the fourth game of the season. And worse was to follow as trusted keeper Stuart Coburn suffered a calf injury during the game at Dover shortly after and would not play for the rest of the season either. On the top of that, experienced winger Nicky Clee was struggling with an injury from the start and never really had a big role to play one the course of the season That impacted on a small squad and a club with a limited budget and their performances and results never truly convinced that they can stay clear of the drop for an extended period. Yet their form in the early weeks was genuinely strange as Alty won just three of the first 12 games in the league and all the victories were against sits with serious pedigree and much more quality in the ranks than then. Apart from Grimsby, Tranmere and the brilliant Cheltenham side were taken down too. But Sinnott’s side would lose five of the first seven games and and found themselves just above the drop zone in September. They improved with battling wins against direct rivals Boreham Wood and Barrow and were overall on a run of just two losses in eight games in October. But the loss of another big player in Shaun Densmore for the rest of the season would proved another devastating blow to a dwindling squad. There were some good performers in it though as Michael Rankine was a pretty useful target man up front while Gianluca Havern was holding things together at the back. Tim Deays enjoyed an excellent season on goal after stepping in for Coburn and that particular loss was not felt that hard due to the excellence of the former. Yet there was no escaping that the general quality of the squad was not quite enough, even if the team remained just about afloat in the table as the season reached the halfway point. Yet wins started to become very rare occasions for the team from January onwards and a success over Woking at the end of the month proved their sole win in a very long stretch of 14 games. The improvement in form of the likes of Halifax and Southport meant that Alty were now left behind and really struggling to stay clear of the bottom four. Josh Ginnelly would prove an inspired loan signing on the wing and a few players kept doing well more often than not. But the team was overall struggling badly and confidence began to erode progressively. Sinnott has brought big success in recent years but there was a feeling that he took the team as far as he can. Indeed, he was given the sack in early March after the latest loss and his assistant Neil Tolson took over. He secured a hefty win over Aldershot in his second game in charge but that would not be a harbinger for an improvement in form during the crunch stage of the season. A crucial loss against direct rivals Halifax followed the next week and the team could not even beat a Kidderminster side that was down and out for a long time. Alty were running out of time to save themselves as teams around them gained ground and indeed defeats at Torquay and Eastleigh left then staring relegation in the face. A win over Welling postponed the inevitable but the team was well beaten by a top side like Braintree on the last day and their relegation was confirmed. Alty will consider themselves unlucky with all these injuries to top players but they were overall not good enough as a squad and will face a tough task in rebuilding and coming back to this level.
