SATURDAY 4TH JANUARY | 3PM ISUZU FA TROPHY FOURTH ROUND 2024/25 SEASON: ISSUE 15 | £2.00
ALTRINCHAM FOOTBALL CLUB
The J Davidson Stadium, Moss Lane Hale, Altrincham WA15 8AP Company Number: 176333
CLUB OWNERSHIP & BOARD
Significant interest (i e > 10% shares)
Club Director, Albert Valdes owns 10 19% of the football club
Co-Chairmen
Bill Waterson & Lawrence Looney Directors
John Coyne, Samantha Mackenzie, Scott Burton, Albert Valdes, Mark Luby, Neil Faulkner
OFFICIALS
First Team Manager
Phil Parkinson
Assistant Manager
Neil Sorvel
Coaching Staff
Ross Speight & Ethan Ross
Sports Therapists
Tommy Uda & Thomas Cadman
Strength & Conditioning
Matthew Fox
Analyst
Mark Bushell Club Secretary
Mark Lockyear
PROGRAMME TEAM
Photographers
Jonathan Moore, Ben Roberts, Freya Richards Contributors
Phil James, Simon Dow, Erin Carroll, Alex Birch, John Edwards, Brian Flynn
CLUB HONOURS
2x FA Trophy Winners (1978 & 1986)
2x National League/Conference Champions (79/80 & 80/81)
2x NPL Premier Division Champions
An FA Cup record 17 Football League clubs knocked out by a continuous non-league club
A WELCOME FROM OUR CO-CHAIRMAN
We welcome the players, staff…. oh, hold on a minute.
We wish you all - fans, staff, officials, supporters, volunteers, Juniors, Community, whether Home, Away, Neutral or Matchday officials - a very HappyNewYearandhopethat the next 12 months are happy andfruitfulforyouall.Welcome toourfirsthomegameof2025 And a particular welcome goes outtoourvisitorstodaytoTheJ Davidson Stadium – players, staff, officials, and supporters of Barnet FC for this afternoon’s IsuzuFaTrophytie
The Bees are once again right in the mix for the National League title and like Alty gaining promotion to the EFL must be foremost in their minds Barnet currently sit top of the table (before theNewYearsDayfixtures),a point ahead of York City and ourteenpointsaheadofthe
Robins But the FA Trophy is a proud competition, now in its 55th season as the prime cup competition for those outside theninety-twoclubsmakingup theEPLandtheEFL.Amazingly Barnet have never won this competition However, they set offlikeatrain,reachingthesemi finals in the inaugural season, losing to the eventual winners, the now defunct Macclesfield Town in a single legged semi finalatStokeCity.Andacouple ofyearslater,theBeeswentone better, reaching Wembley Stadium but losing 3-0 to Stafford Rangers, who have since sunk like a lead balloon, currentlysatintherelegation
zone of the NPL Division One West
In recent years, Barnet have reached the Quarter Finals and the Semi Finals of the Trophy, andinfactwhenwewerelosing on pens to FC Halifax in the semi-finals a couple of years ago,Barnetwerelosing,alsoon pens, in the other Semi Final at Gateshead.
The shining beacon at the end of an FA Trophy run is a visit to Wembley Stadium, a journey theRobinshavemadethree
The Bees are once again right in the mix for the National League title and like Alty gaining promotion to the EFL must be foremostintheirminds
Thisday50yearsagosawAltytraveltoEvertoninoursecondappearanceintheFACup3rdRound And weachievedoneofthegreatestresultsinourhistory,returningalongtheM62havingsecureda1-1draw atGoodisonPark,JohnHughes’s26thminuteopenerbeingpeggedbackbyMickLyons’slatepenalty forthehomeside Butourresultdidnotgrabtheheadlines–theseinsteadwenttoWimbledon,thenof the Southern League who went Burnley and came away with a 1-0 win, after heroics by goalkeeper DickieGuywhocameupagainsttheRobinsfiveseasonslaterbetweenthesticksforMaidstoneUnited. Therewerefivenon-|LeagueclubsintheThirdRoundthatday,andnoneofthemwerebeatenonthe Saturday The aforementioned Stafford Rangers drew 0-0 with Rotherham United, before losing the replayatMillmoor2-0;WycombeWanderersheldMiddlesbroughtoa0-0drawatLoakesPark,losing the replay by a single goal; and Leatherhead won 1-0 at Brighton & Hove Albion. In the 4th Round Leatherhead threw away a 2-goal lead against Leicester City, eventually losing 3-2 and Wimbledon continuedtheirexploitsdrawing0-0atEllandRoadagainst“TheChampionsofEurope”beforelosing1-0 atPloughLane.
We are delighted to welcome some of the heroes of the 94-95 team to The J Davidson Stadium for today’sgame.
Inthe20yearsbetweenEvertonandSpursPartTwowereachedtheThirdRoundatotalofseventimes andwiththethreeWembleyvisitsinthesameperiod,generationsofAltyfansgotusedtoatleastone big day out every other year And a run in the FA Trophy gives us the prospect of writing a wonderful newchapterforanewgenerationoffans.
I am absolutely delighted and extremely proud to be able to tell you of the award of a British Empire Medal to Rachel Davis, co-ordinator of the more than fifty girls’ teams at Altrincham FC for services to football Rachelhasoverseenthegrowthofourgirls’sectiontomorethansixhundredregisteredplayers across a myriad of age groups What an achievement, and one I am sure you will all join me in applauding.
2024 also saw the incredible achievement of 10 10km races in ten countries across 5 days by the inspirational Joseph Adams, and the funds raised will allow Altrincham FC Community Club to undertakesomanygroundbreakingprojects
AltrinchamFCissomuchmorethanwhathappensforninetyplusminutesonaSaturdayorTuesday We work hard and we are proud to be at the heart of this town, with all of us; the Football Club, Alty JuniorsandtheCommunitydefiningtheethosoftheclub.IhavelongmaintainedthataFootballClub needstobeanchoredinitscommunityinordertoprevail AltyFCarecurrentlyachievingthisstrategic objectiveandlongmaythiscontinue
Enjoythegame,
ASSISTANT MANAGER
NEIL SORVEL
Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to 2025 and another big Isuzu FA Trophy tie at The J.Davidson Stadium.
We’re really looking forward to the challenges ahead this year afterareallypositive2024. Our first challenge is now Barnet this afternoon in the FA TrophyaftertheNewYear’sDay game at Rochdale was postponed
Itwasdisappointingtohavethe gameonWednesdayrainedoff. We were looking forward to it, all prepared and ready to go, butnowwe’llfacethechallenge on a Tuesday night, which we’ll once again prepare for and be readyforwhenthetimecomes.
Considering it’s January and that was our first game this seasontobecalledoffitisn’ttoo
badgoing
It’sgreattobebattlingonmore thanonefrontheadingintothe new year and today’s game gives us the chance to move one step closer to Wembley The draw couldn’t have been much tougher in today’s opponents Barnet A really good, tough opponent with a good,strongsquad
Whether we’re playing them at home or away they’ll come to play on the front foot and be looking to control the game, outplayyouandwin It’sagood one for our lads, a good test in animportantcompetition
The draw couldn’t have been much tougher in today’s opponents Barnet A really good, tough opponent with a good,strongsquad
The FA Trophy is a competition where we’d have liked to have donebetterinsincewe’vebeen atAltrincham Wehaven’tdone aswellaswe’dhaveliked,aside from making the semi-finals in 2023.
It’s a prestigious competition with the prize of playing at Wembley at the end, something we want to do well in and progress in this weekend
It should be a really exciting game – and hopefully the weather won’t be as testing as the last round againstMacclesfield.Thewindwasthedestroyeroffootballduringlastmonth’sgame,butwedidwhat wehadtodotogetthrough,whichisalwaysthemainthing
Reflectingon2024wecantakealotofpositivesfromtheyear Itwasreallypleasingwithhowitwentlast season It’sareallycompetitiveleague,sotofinishfourthintheNationalLeaguewasabigachievement, makingtheplay-offsandtakingthathugesupportdowntoBromley.Obviously,thedownsidewasthe full-timeresultdownthere Butthat’sfootballsometimes
The season as a whole was a real success and we knew coming into this season what the challenges wouldbe,withreachingtheplay-offsagainbeingthegoal Canwematchorbetterwhatwe’vedonein previousseasons–movingthingsforwardoncemore,aswealwayslooktodo
It’sabigchallenge,withalotofthebiggerteamsgettingtheiracttogetherandcompetingatthetopof the division Former Football League clubs in York City, Oldham Athletic, Rochdale and Forest Green Rovers looking strong and going well, it adds to the challenge for us to replicate last season, but it’s a challengeweenjoytakingon
Barnet were founder members of the North London League in 1892 and spent 53 years in the Athenian League, winning seven league titles and one FA Amateur Cup title, before turning semi-professional when entering the Southern League in 1965.
Founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979, the Bees first won promotion to the Football League under the guidance of Barry Fry in 1991 and reached the third tier of English football for the only time in 1993. They have since moved between League Two and the National League five times from 2001 through to 2018
HEAD COACH
Became permanent Barnet Head Coach in early 2022 after fulfilling the roles of Head of Football and Caretaker Head Coach at the club during the previous eight months after joining from Wealdstone
The 44-year-old won the National League South with Wealdstone in 2020, and also managed Hemel Hempstead, Billericay and Kingstonian prior to his move to The Hive.
His playing career began at Sheffield Wednesday before a spell with Luton Town gave way to over 10 years in non-league with the likes of Hitchin Town, Halesowen Town & Stevenage
ANTHONY HARTIGAN
SKIPPER
An almost ever-present in the Bees line-up over the last season and half after making the switch from Mansfield Town.
Prior to a season in Nottinghamshire, the 24-year-old spent five plus years with AFC Wimbledon, playing over 100 times in EFL League One for the south London outfit
The midfielder also enjoyed a short spell on loan at Newport County
The 6’3” centre forward joined Barnet on a permanent basis following his departure from Northampton Town in 2022
In August 2015, Kabamba signed for Hampton & Richmond Borough and scored a further 18 goals in the 2015/16 season, becoming the club’s top scorer. Stints at Portsmouth, Colchester United, Aldershot Town and Havant & Waterlooville followed before Kabamba signed for Hartlepool United in 2019.
Kabamba joined Scottish Premier League club Kilmarnock in 2020, which preceded a move to Northampton Town.
NICKE KABAMBA
2024/25 REPORT
Dean Brennan’s Bees are once again one of the teams to beat in the Vanarama National League after last season’s agonising play-off semi-final defeat to Solihull Moors
In the Emirates FA Cup, our opponents saw off Chelmsford City in final qualifying before succumbing 5-3 to Exeter City in round one.
The previous round of the FA Trophy matched the Bees with Aveley, which ended in a 2-0 victory.
Barnet 2 Altrincham 1 Tuesday, September 10th, 2024
ALTRINCHAM FC
LEWIS BAINES
The Filson Family
Alan Ryan Holmes & Watson Alty Ability Officer
The Rose Family Anthony Booth Phil & Gill
PLAYER SPONSOR
CARROLL’S CORNER
Article written by Women’s Team Social Media Manager, Erin-Beau Carroll
A mixed 2024 has now come to an end for the Altrincham FC Women's team In May the team suffered relegation from the North West Womens Regional League Division One South into the Cheshire Womens and Youth League Premier Division. Despite their relegation though there have been some incredible moments, one of which being reaching the Cheshire Womens County Cup Quarter Final against Nantwich Town!
A change in management occurred in August with Alex Hilton-Slee being appointed, replacing Graeme Pilkington, in addition to this Duncan Jones was appointed as Assistant Coach bringing vast knowledge and experience as the Robins looked to kick on Several new faces joined the club over the summer including striker Kira Saycell who currently has thirteen goals to her name in twelve league appearances. Altrincham started their season with an opening day defeat to AFC Crewe, however quickly put this behind them to acquire their first three points in the local derby against Northwich Vixens defeating them 4-2 in a fast-paced performance.
Altrincham then went on to win their next away game beating Wirral United by three goals to one The Robins winning momentum was temporarily stalled as they suffered back to back defeats at the hands of Nantwich Town and Stockport County Ladies Development, but this didn’t knock their confidence. Alex Hilton-Slee’s side responded by going on an unbeaten run which extended to six games beating Wirral United 3-2, Newton Le-Willows 4-3, again winning the local derby, this 6-1 at home
They then beat Congleton Town 4-1 away, then in the return fixture registering a 6-4 victory at Partington Sports village The impressive run came to an end as they suffered a narrow 4-3 defeat to
