Today is our first game in 14 days as we had a blank Saturday last week, due to Spennymoor Town being involved in the FA Trophy.

Altrincham FC manager Phil Parkinson with his latest column for Altrincham Today…

Altrincham FC manager Phil Parkinson with his latest column for Altrincham Today.

Altrincham FC manager Phil Parkinson with his latest column for Altrincham Today… Following the disappointment of going out of the…

I can’t wait for today’s Emirates FA Cup tie at Edgeley Park against Stockport County.

We were all absolutely delighted to make progress in the Emirates F.A. Cup last Saturday with a fully deserved 4-2 victory against Bradford Park Avenue.

Today it’s Emirates FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round action for us as we welcome Bradford (Park Avenue) to the J Davidson Stadium.

We have completed 10 league games since the Vanarama National League North campaign started on August 4th, but today we are in action in the Emirates F.A. Cup.

Today we travel to West Yorkshire to take on Bradford Park Avenue, who have started the season really well and are riding high in 3rd place in the Vanarama National League North.

It’s only the first day of September but today we make our third trip up to the North East in 22 days.

The latest column from Altrincham FC manager Phil Parkinson.

I’ve got to be pleased with the start that we’ve made to life in the Vanarama National League North.

We won the title in Lincolnshire last Saturday in style with a fantastic second-half performance at Grantham.

A late Josh Hancock goal on Thursday night at Shaw Lane has put us within touching distance of the title and we can win it with three points today in Lincolnshire against Grantham Town, who look likely to make the play-offs and who won 5-1 at Whitby as we were winning in Barnsley.

There are only 15 days left of the season and we have six games to play… like most teams in our division, it’s a tough schedule, particularly this week. From today we have four games in eight days, three of which are away from home.

Our last two scheduled games, at home to Marine on Easter Monday and away to Shaw Lane on Thursday, were postponed due to waterlogged pitches, which means that there are now 22 days left in the season and we have eight games to play, which is a tough schedule by any standards.

Despite the poor recent run of results, which has seen us take just a single point from three home games, we are feeling very positive about today’s trip to Halesowen Town.

Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat at home to Workington was difficult to stomach.

We have got 18 Evo-Stik Premier games to play and five of those are scheduled in the next 15 days, so it’s a very important phase of the season.

It felt like a waste of time, for everyone involved, after travelling almost a hundred miles to Stourbridge last Saturday, only for the match to be called off just before two o’clock.