The latest Stan adventure into deepest Northumberland could be referred to in relation to some of the films on television this Christmas. Mission Impossible and the Great Escape (they nearly made it over the fence but not quite) come to mind and it’s a pity that One of Our Dinosaurs (or lots of our players) are Missing was not on. Partly due to last minute call offs, there were six changes to last Saturday’s starting eleven. There was also only one player on the bench, the drastic impact of this will become clearer as you read on.

These twelve players should be honoured for their commitment but I doubt the Queen will give them a mention in the New Year day’s honours list. The Stan started well and there was a fine shot from Derek Lowson from a left-wing cross in the second minute. Five minutes later Wear blocked a shot at the other end and the shot from the resulting corner went wide. The fate of the match though was greatly influenced by two incidents in two minutes.

Firstly in the twelfth minute Gary Dixon pulled a muscle while chasing after the ball and was replaced by the only substitute, Gary Yates. Two minutes later, Ben Telford received a suspected broken wrist when pushed from behind and had to be taken to hospital. The good news was that his wrist was badly swollen but not broken. The bad news was that the Stan had to play the remaining seventy six minutes with ten players.

The players responded as if they were still eleven and put in a great performance for the rest of the game. This started a minute later when Alnwick were awarded a penalty but Shaun Backhouse made a fine save.

For the next fifteen minutes, Alnwick had most of the possession but could not make any clear chances to score. The Stan kept battling and trying to attack but it was Alnwick who had a shot on thirty seven minutes which went wide. Heaton continued to hold out but the man advantage to Alnwick had its impact in the forty second minute. Shanks turned Ray and crossed to Hogg who headed home.

Just before the half time whistle it was 2-0 to Alnwick when a five man passing move resulted in Brown slotting the ball home.

In the second half, Alnwick had much of the play and a number of chances but could not break the Stan defence.

The Stan though dominated the last ten minutes and came closest to scoring. Lowson’s shot deflected off a defender which forced the Alnwick keeper to make a full stretch save. A few minutes later and the keeper had to do the same again to stop a Yates shot.

The match though ended 2-0 to Alnwick but Assistant manager Geoff Walker was convinced that the Stan would have won if there had been a full squad. Even so he commented that ‘the team of ten caused Alnwick lots of problems and that they put in a great effort.’

Hopefully the rest of the squad got sat navs for Christmas and have worked out how to use them by Saturday when the Stan travel to Whickham.

Stan Team: Backhouse; Telford; Dixon,G (Yates); Stoddart; Ray; Wear; Johnson, A; Cairns; Lowson; Johnson, L; Carr.

Attendance: 48

Kevin Mochrie (With thanks for notes from Alnwick's Cyril Cox)