NORTHWICH VICTORIA 1 ALTRINCHAM 1 After two comfortable victories against teams from the NW Counties Premier and UniBond First Division, Altrincham had a much tougher game on Tuesday night against Blue Square North neighbours Northwich Victoria.

It started well for Altrincham who played some neat football and took an early lead when Chris Senior found the bottom corner of the net from 20 yards in the seventh minute of the game. But the Robins did not learn their lesson after Vics' striker Aaron Burns singed the fingers of Alty keeper Saunders mid way through the half.

Soon afterwards, Burns blasted another free kick into the net from 22 yards to make it 1-1.

As usual in pre-season, both sides made plenty of substitutions during the second half but it was the Vics who had the better of the second 45 minutes.

The pace of Horrocks and Burns was a recurrent threat and Saunders had to make a couple of excellent saves to deny the Vics.

Altrincham suffered a late blow when substitute Paul McManus, who had scored four times in his two previous pre-season games, was sent off for a lunge at Horrocks. The referee produced a straight red card to send the former Chester and Bangor City youngster packing.

* Altrincham travel to Trafford on Thursday (7.45pm) before entertaining a Bolton Wanderers XI at Moss Lane on Saturday (3pm).

Altrincham FC's 'Summer Fun Week' takes place from 27-31 July.

Individual rates are available for children who cannot attend all of the days. Those enrolling qualify for free tickets to the Alty pre-season games at Moss Lane. Please ring the club (0161 928-1045) for details.

ALTRINCHAM: Saunders, Smith, McGregor, Young, Doughty, Denham, Lawton, Crowell, Chalmers, Johnson, Senior. Subs: Little, McManus, Heffernan, Williams, Muirhead.