Altrincham climbed into the top four in the National League after Chris Conn-Clarke scored a dramatic late winner with a goal he described as the best of his career at The J.Davidson Stadium on Saturday.

Trailing at half time to AFC Fylde, Alty were level when Conn-Clarke clipped a brilliant free-kick over the wall and into the net and were celebrating a win that took them to fourth after the attacking midfielder latched on to a pass from Elliot Osborne and hit a shot with dip and pace that went in off the underside of the bar.

Both were stunning individual efforts, taking his tally for the season to 12, and he was in no doubt about the one that meant most to him as he picked up his Harvey Nichols man-of-the-match award after Alty’s 2-1 win.

“The second one was the best goal I’ve scored in all my career,” he said.

“Ell gave me the ball in loads of space, and all I can remember is putting my foot through it and seeing it come off the underside of the bar and bounce over the line. That was a great feeling, especially as it was so late on and it won the game for us.

“But I was pleased with the first one as well. That’s a technique I’ve been working on for a few years now. I practice it in training all the time. In fact, I stay behind after training on a Friday and practice it, so to see it paying dividends on the Saturday makes it all worthwhile.”

Reflecting on an end-to-end game in which several fine saves by Ethan Ross and an exceptional goalline clearance by Lewis Baines contributed as much as Conn-Clarke’s goals to a crucial win, manager Phil Parkinson said: “We might have lost that game this time last year, we we’re a year older and more experienced. It’s not luck that Lewis was in the right place to make that block - he knew where he needed to be.”