Grays 1, Altrincham 1

AN injury-time leveller from Altrincham substitute Keiron Lugsden prevented Grays from returning to the top of the Conference table on Tuesday night as the visitors left the Recreation Ground with a deserved point.

AFTEr a floodlight failure that delayed the start for 45 minutes Aaron McLean had opened the scoring for Blues with a sublime goal inside the first five minutes but the Conference high-fliers failed to capitalise on their advantage and it was with a sense of inevitability that Lugsden netted only Alty's fourth away goal of the season to seal a battling draw for his side.

Grays have won 11 points in the final 10 minutes of games this season so it was only a matter of time before the tables were turned and they ended up on the receiving end of a last minute strike as manager, Mark Stimson, admitted afterwards.

"I don't know how many times we have got late goals but it's quite a few and we have been hit with one ourselves tonight," he said. "But the positive is that the goal didn't mean we were defeated because that would have been a real blow to the boys.

"Altrincham made it really hard for ourselves tonight. They work extremely hard and though they are at the bottom end of the league their last three or four results have been good. They drew with Exeter and only just loss to Accrington so they really pick themselves up for the big games.

"But we weren't at our best tonight which is disappointing especially after making such a great start. We couldn't get that second goal to kill the game and they came back into it."

Stimson made three changes from the side that were controversially dumped out of the FA Cup by Mansfield four days' previously with Cam Mawer coming in for the suspended Andy Sambrook and Gary Hooper and Nicky Eyre replacing Dennis Oli and Ashley Bayes respectively.

The Blues boss said of his changes: "Nicky is a very talented goalkeeper, as is Ashley, and they are very close and it's a healthy position for the club. But I just felt Nicky deserved a chance and he didn't do a lot wrong. I had a chat with Dennis and explained I thought he needed a break and he's agreed with me and hopefully it will do him some good."

Blues started off the game with plenty of verve with Michael Kightly and Jamie Slabber showing up well in the early exchanges and it was the former who played a crucial part in setting up McLean's opener.

After a string of crisp passing tore the Altrincham back line apart, Kightly slipped the ball through to McLean who cleverly dinked the ball over Stuart Coburn to register his first league goal of the season.

Grays looked like they might over-run Altrincham but their opponents dug-in and restricted the home side to half chances before they began to offer a goal threat of their own.

Slabber came the closest for Grays when he forced Coburn into a good stop from a Martin free kick before Warren Peyton found room on the edge of the box for the visitors and fired a shot just wide.

A neat move involving Ged Murphy and Val Owen then ended up with James Robinson forcing a good save out of Eyre as Altrincham grew in confidence. That confidence would have been knocked down a peg or two if Kightly had converted a chance he created himself when he ran through a host of static Alty defenders but, having reached the penalty area, the ex-Southend man could only drag his shot wide.

But Grays' centre back pairing of Lee Matthews and Stev Angus were being made to work far harder than they could have imagined to keep Altrincham at bay with Matthews having to make a great last-ditch tackle to deny Val Owen as he shaped to shoot at goal.

The game was bereft of chances during the opening exchanges of the second half and Stimson threw on Oli in place of Hooper to try and generate a bit more urgency into his side.

Oli was almost immediately in the thick of the action when he played in John Nutter but the full back couldn't bend the ball past Coburn.

Nutter, who was having another fine game at left back, then found himself on the right hand side and stood up a wonderful cross, which McLean should have left to the better-placed Slabber, but instead headed wildly over the bar from six yards.

All the while Altrincham grew in confidence and boss, Graham Heathcote, threw on two attackers, Lugsden and Kyle Wilson, as they searched for an equaliser. Both subs caused the Grays back line plenty of problems and when Matthews fouled Lugsden on the left touch line, James Robinson, came close to sweeping home the resulting free kick.

Lugsden then wasted two good opportunities to test Eyre before, in the second minute of overtime, Cobun launched a huge free kick into the Grays area which the home defenders failed to deal with and Lugsden shrugged off Matthews to fire past Eyre.

Grays Athletic: Eyre, Mawer, Matthews, Angus, Nutter, Hooper (Oli 6), Thurgood, Martin, Kightly, McLean (Poole 74),Slabber.