SEPTEMBER must be a curse month for Altrincham as similar to the last-season the J.Davidson Stadium side are suffering an injury-crisis.

On Saturday, they started their 4-0 defeat to Braintree Town without goalkeeper Stuart Coburn, centre-back Tom Marshall and midfielders Jake Moult and Nick Clee.

After a tenative opening spell from Altrincham, Braintree took an eighth-minute lead when Michael Cheek's shot trickled into the net passed Scott Deasy.

Just before the break things went from bad to worse when loanee Andy Parry brought down Cheek and a spot-kick was awarded. Kenny Davis sent Deasy the wrong way from the spot to make it 2-0 with three minutes remaining before the interval.

Although substitute Crowther produced one or two hopeful moments for Altrincham in the second half, it was the visitors who still looked the much more likely scorers.

Soon after the hour-mark, Cheek hit the post after Alty hesitation and Leather then had to clear a Cheek lob off the line with Deasy beaten.

Four minutes from the end of the 90 minutes, substitute Anthony Edgar smacked a shot from the left against the post, whilst earlier Jordan Sinnott had had to make an important block to stop Edgar scoring.

Alty scarcely threatened at the other end but, with the game going into added time, they remained 2-0 adrift.

However, the visitors underlined their superiority with two goals in added time.

First of all, Edgar spotted Deasy off his line and expertly lobbed him from 40 yards to make it 3-0.

Then, fellow substitute Taylor Miles scored with a fine free-kick from just outside the box to leave Altrincham four goals down.

This heavy defeat leaves Alty 19th in the 24-team National League, with the joint lowest tally of goals scored and the worst goal difference in the division.

Nevertheless, Alty have two points more than they had at this stage last season and have now had to play seven of the division's top 10 teams in their eleven matches to date.

ALTRINCHAM: Deasy, Leather, Havern, Parry (O'Keefe 74); Densmore (c) (Crowther 34), Sinnott, Richman, Griffin, Lawrie, Reeves, Rankine (Bowerman 66). Unused subs: Moult, Heathcote