PHIL Parkinson boldly declared Altrincham have ‘nothing to fear’ after a dominant performance went unrewarded in an unlucky 2-1 defeat at Blyth Spartans on Saturday.

After laying siege to the Blyth goal early on, Alty went behind in freakish circumstances as a through ball bounced off midfielder Sean Reid’s outstretched knee, as he tried to control it, and looped over keeper Elliot Wynne.

Though they equalised a minute later, Alty conceded again in the 83rd minute and must have sensed it was not their day when, in the final seconds, substitute Tom Peers blazed over a gaping net after the Blyth keeper failed to hold a fierce free kick by James Poole.

Tough though Parkinson found it to accept the outcome, he remained optimistic his side can make an impact on National League North.

"We should have put the game to bed in the opening 10 minutes, then they score the luckiest of goals against the run of play, but that sometimes happens when you don’t take your chances,’ said the Alty boss, whose side face Curzon Ashton at home on Saturday.

"The only point I made to the players was if you don’t capitalise when you’re in the ascendancy, you are going to be susceptible to something like that.

"But we do feel extremely hard done to because we played exceptionally well and worked our socks off right to the very end.

"Tom was a bit cold, coming off the bench, but would put that late chance away nine times out of 10.

"It wasn’t just him, though, we had so many really good opportunities.

"We should have come away with all three points, let alone one.

"But there is nothing to fear from what I have seen so far.

"We are getting punished for any little mistake we make, which we knew would happen stepping up to this level, but we just need to be more clinical when we are in control.

"We let Blyth off the hook, but if we move forward with that level of performance, we will win far more games than we lose."