Couldn't make it last night but followed intently and seems we played some very good stuff indeed.
Winning isn't important but as Wayne (and the boy Parkinson) says winning breeds confidence and they will have enjoyed that tonight. Spoke to two decent Chester fans at Whitchurch and they were pleased with the summer signings and really hoping for good things this season. I believe they played poorly but it didn't sound like they could get hold of the ball and when they did they just launched it.
Some comments from the new devachat Chester forum make nice reading, it's nice to read stuff about us other "how sh*t were they!"
"I get that we aren't giving it full pelt but we have been given a footballing lesson tonight and chased shadows for 90 mins. What concerned me was the amount of aimless punts from our defenders, whereas Alty actually played from the back and shifted it around nicely"
"On the other hand, I thought Altrincham looked a decent outfit. Their formation caused us problems, 352, as our wingers were so narrow when defending so they kept their full backs as wide as they could go and were always an option. James Poole up top for them looked good, he dropped into areas between the defence and midfield and again made himself available for an easy pass. First half especially it looked like they had an extra man and so much time on the ball, which was a combination of Alty having good movement and us not pressing high enough. Thought overall Alty moved the ball very well but lacked something in the final third, otherwise they could have scored 3 or 4 first half."
"I sat in the stand behind the dugouts and the Alty manager was shouting all the right things, "don't have too many touches, "keep the ball moving" etc I didn't once see our management team offer any encouragement or advice"
"We aren't going to play attractive football like Altrincham under McCarthy"
That's from four different posters. Early days but that will do them a lot of good last night.