LEE Sinnott was full of praise for Altrincham’s spirit and resolve after they dug deep and came up with an injury-time winner from substitute Jake Moult in a dramatic play-off semi-final first leg against Brackley at Moss Lane.

Trailing to a second-half goal but spurred on by almost 1,600 Alty fans in a crowd of 1,618, Sinnott’s side roared back, on an electrifying night, and edged in front with a Simon Richman header and last-gasp Moult volley.

Once one of non-League football’s most famous venues finally stopped rocking, the Alty boss assessed a pulsating encounter and called for more of the same in Saturday’s return at St James Park.

Brackley manager Jon Brady claimed Alty would ‘think they already have one foot in the final’, but Sinnott was having none of it, as he said: “Maybe his boys think they’ve got one foot in the final, because they are only one behind and are at home in the second leg. It makes no odds to me at all, because unless one side are six or seven in front in these situations, nothing is settled and there is still everything to play for.

‘It is nice to have an advantage to take down there with us, but it won’t change our planning one iota. The mentality will be exactly the same, that there is still a job to be done.

‘But I was delighted with the way we kept plugging away, even after hitting the woodwork three times in 10 seconds and then going behind against the run of play.

“I have never seen anyone hit the bar and post three times in such rapid succession, but there was no feeling sorry for ourselves. If anything, that got us going, and it was a measure of how far we have come, in terms of self-belief, that we finished the night with a lead. We showed a lot of character.”

Sinnott saluted the way Moult rose to the occasion, despite being on the bench in recent weeks.

“That’s the reaction you want when you have to leave a player out of the starting line-up, and I thought it was wonderful technique and a wonderful strike with enough pace to beat the keeper’s dive,” he said.

“It was a nice moment for the supporters as well. You could tell what it meant to them from the way the place erupted.”

Danny Boshell faces a late test on a hamstring injury for Saturday.