Altrincham’s first competitive game as a full-time professional club, did not yield the desired three points against Maidstone United, due to a poor start and some debatable officiating by the referee and one of his assistants.

Maidstone, newly-promoted as champions of National League South, started brightly but were gifted an early goal when Liam Brockbank, one of six players making their first appearance after joining or re-joining the club, sliced Regan Booty’s fourth-minute free-kick into his own net.

It took the home side half an hour to test the Maidstone keeper, however the half finished with a real purple patch, with Yusuf Mersin denying Ryan Colclough twice and producing a superb one-handed save to thwart Brockbank, who recovered well from his disastrous start.

Colclough produced a number of magical moments in the game and none better than a sublime piece of skill to turn an attack that looked as if it was petering out into a gilt-edged opportunity for Chris Conn-Clarke, who spun neatly to convert a left-footed shot from the edge of the six-yard box.

After the break, Alty continued in the same vein with Toby Mullarkey and the irrepressible Colclough rattling the woodwork before the Kent side went down to 10 men as Hady Ghandour was shown a second yellow card.

To their credit, Hakan Hayrettin’s side responded well to this blow, but still should have gone back to Kent defeated, as what looked like a perfectly good late goal from substitute, Marcus Dinanga, was inexplicably ruled out by the assistant, who flagged offside.

Speaking exclusively to The Messenger, Altrincham manager, Phil Parkinson said: “I was delighted with the performance, disappointed with the result.

“There were lots of positives and we were outstanding in creating goal threats, ahead of where I would expect us to be right now.

“There’s lots more to come from us and I’m excited to see, if we can stay injury free, exactly what this young group can produce this season.”