Abbey Hey 1 Alty 5 (From Messenger Newspapers)

Abbey Hey 1 Alty 5

10:23am Tuesday 15th July 2008

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THERE’S no substitute for class.

Despite his diminutive stature, Chris Senior proved head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch, smashing five first half goals as Alty passed their first preseason test.

Some of the finishing was simply sublime.

Pick of the bunch was an acrobatic scissor kick to convert new signing Dale Johnson’s pinpoint cross four minutes before the break and seal an easy 5-1 win.

Abbey Hey had no answer to the Alty forward’s accuracy. They battled gamely throughout - at least giving the Robins something of a challenge after half time - but it was clear they were out of their depth.

Although Senior was a big reason for that, it’s no coincidence his purple patch lasted as long as Johnson was on the pitch.

Recovering from a hamstring injury, the big centre forward was limited to just 45 minutes but it was a cameo full of promise.

The former Hyde man played with an unselfish nature, exhibiting strength and neat footwork to bring his teammates into the play. Strangely for a targetman, he also showed a good turn of pace, beating his man on a number of occasions to whip dangerous balls into the box.

Senior and Johnson seemed to have a strong understanding right from the start and it was no surprise when the former opened the scoring after just five minutes, latching onto a through ball from Robbie Lawton to rifle home an accurate finish.

One soon became two.

It was all too easy as Johnson jinked past the full back on the right wing, got to the by-line and squared to the unmarked Lawton. His effort was saved but inevitably Senior was on hand to bundle the ball into the empty net.

Although Senior’s five-goal haul was impressive enough, it could have been more.

Twice he came close to adding to his tally, both times denied by good saves from the keeper, before he finally completed his hat-trick on 28 minutes, knocking home a far post corner from busy midfielder Anthony Danylyk.

The only blip in the Robins’ first half performance came on the half-hour mark, courtesy of former Alty youth player Danny Heffernan.

Playing like a man with a point to prove, the tall striker beat both Greg Young and trialist Natt Kerr on the edge of the box before finding the corner of the net with a shot that gave trialist keeper James Coates no chance.

Normal service was quickly resumed though. Just nine minutes later Coates sent Senior haring away behind the defence with a brilliantly accurate kick and he cleverly lobbed the keeper to restore Alty’s three-goal cushion.

Senior then wrapped up the scoring with his improvised effort from Johnson’s cross to conclude a first half full of positives.

The going was tougher after the break.

Abbey Hey tightened up at the back and despite plenty of decent possession for the Robins - with trialist Jake Moult looking neat and tidy in the centre of midfield - they couldn’t add to their lead.

Youth team striker Tom Bailey came close, denied well by Coates, who played the second half in goal for the hosts.

The youngster then turned provider to knock Young’s free kick into the path of Senior, but not even he could find the net, Coates rushing out to deny him.

Stuart Coburn was called into action to make a couple of smart stops but he was by far the more relaxed of the two custodians.

Both Moult and Bailey were a whisker away from connecting with Senior’s teasing ball across the box, while Coates came to the fore again as he raced from his goalline to deny Senior in a one-on-one.

All in all, it was a productive workout for the Robins.

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