LEE Sinnott could not hide his frustration after Altrincham 'shot themselves in the foot' losing 3-1 against lowly FC Halifax at The J.Davidson Stadium on Tuesday night.

Damian Reeves looked to have provided the springboard for an Alty win after claiming his second goal in successive games with a second-half headed equaliser. But Jordan Burrow restored Halifax's lead moments later, with a carbon copy of his first-half opener, and Kingsley James converted a penalty in the last minute of added time.

"I had to reinforce the message of what I wanted at half-time, and I thought we were delivering and having a good spell of play when we shot ourselves in the foot," said Alty boss Sinnott.

"You could sense, after our equaliser, we wanted to expand the play, stretch them and have a go, but then we gave the ball away again in a position that set them up to catch us out of position.

"For each of their first two goals, you could possibly ask whether the ball should have come into our box and whether Burrow should have got his head on it, rather than someone dealing with it.

"What you can say for sure is you don't give the ball away cheaply in a position that is going to leave you exposed.

"If you lose possession twice in an area where you are starting to commit players to a forward phase of play, you're not going to get away with it.

"We were the instigators of our own downfall, and if I was a neutral looking on and being ruthless in my assessment, I'd say you got what you deserved."

Michael Rankine (back) and Ryan Crowther (hamstring) face fitness tests for Saturday's trip to Aldershot, after missing the Halifax game, as does Andy Parry, who hobbled off near the end. Nicky Clee and Shaun Densmore both came through unscathed after continuing their return from injury.