Kosylo Praises Altrincham's Bravery in FA Cup Fog

On most FA Cup days, the cliché is that the magic is in the air. At Altrincham on Saturday, you could barely see it.

Winger Matty Kosylo admitted he had never experienced anything like the conditions that shrouded his side’s penalty shootout defeat to Notts County, as thick fog turned a televised cup tie into a game played on instinct and guesswork.

The 34-year-old, a firm favourite since arriving from AFC Fylde in 2020, has been central to Altrincham’s impressive National League campaign, with the club sitting seventh and eyeing a serious promotion push. This was meant to be another chance to show how far they have come, a non-league side testing themselves against League One opposition in front of the BBC Two cameras.

Instead, the second half disappeared into the mist.

What began as a murky afternoon descended into near farce after the break. Fans in the stands lost sight of the ball. Viewers at home stared at a grey screen. Players, somehow, had to keep going.

“It started to come in more so in the second half but by the time I'd gone off in the 89th minute, I think the lads after me had it worse,” Kosylo told BBC Radio 5 Live, still processing the surreal nature of it all.

From the bench, the view was no better.

“Where we were sat on the bench, our vision was seriously limited. As soon as it went to the other side of the pitch, we were guessing what was going on.”

Guessing. In an FA Cup tie decided on the finest of margins, with a place in the next round at stake, players and staff could only piece together the action from noise and reaction, rather than sight.

The officials kept the game on. Notts County, with their extra division of polish, eventually edged it in the shootout. The scoreboard will record only a narrow defeat for Altrincham, another non-league side pushed back at the first-round hurdle by league opposition.

The performance told a different story.

Kosylo, who has helped drive Alty’s rise into the National League’s top seven this season, preferred to talk about character rather than controversy.

“We're very proud of the lads and the effort they've put in,” he said. “Taking it in those conditions in tight areas, and being brave to go forward and make passes in that weather, hats off to the boys.”

That bravery has underpinned Altrincham’s season. They have not climbed into the promotion picture by sitting deep and surviving; they have done it by playing, by trusting their touch and their combinations, by backing themselves against bigger budgets and longer histories.

On Saturday, they tried to do the same with visibility reduced to a blur.

The fog turned every touch into a test of nerve. Centre-backs had to commit to challenges without a full picture. Midfielders took the ball on the half-turn with shadows rather than shirts in their peripheral vision. Wingers like Kosylo ran into space that existed more in memory than in view.

Altrincham still stood up to a club two divisions above them, dragged the tie all the way to penalties and walked off to applause that cut through the gloom.

Defeat stings, especially in this competition, especially when the margins feel as murky as the weather. But nights like this also harden a squad. They give a fanbase one more reason to believe that this group, this manager, this style of play, can carry them deeper into the promotion race once the fog lifts and the league campaign resumes.

If Alty can show the same courage on clearer days that they showed when they could barely see the ball, seventh in the National League may only be a staging post.