nantwich home

Well done stour off the mark with three points

Having not seen the Whitby match I thought I'd reserve judgement until after tonight's match.

I thought the first half was awful,we were lucky to be only 0-1 down for the majority of the half,jittery defending,uncertainty from our new keeper,lack of ball retention and a lack of tempo and cohesion.

Karl Hawley's equaliser came at a good time and was well taken,reward for a hard working first half from our new centre forward.

Second half was better going forward,Dodd and Hawley caused Nantwich a lot of problems with good movement and pace and we deserved our goals but we continued to look really dodgy at the back.

Hopefully the return of Kristien Green will improve the shape of the team and I really hope Louis Harris begins to make the first eleven again,I think we miss him in midfield.

Only four subs again tonight I gather,why?

Saturday's debacle can't have helped but I thought tonight's first home attendance was dissapointing but well done to the noisy Nantwich contingent.

Let's back this win up with another on Saturday and Monday.

An entertaining game saw us just about deserve another high-scoring win against a not-bad Nantwich team that were very quick out of the blocks and could have been out of sight in the first 20 minutes.

Our victory was due, in no small way, to touches of class and quick-thinking by Karl. Thought Junior had a good game as a stand-in full back for Kristian but I was surprised to see us with only four subs.

All-in-all last night's team started to show optimistic signs of gelling into a solid unit and I was pleased that Charlie was able to redeem himself after Nantwich's opening goal gaffe with at least two very good saves. Our win will come as a big relief to Drew after his misplaced pass led to their third goal and a very nervy final few minutes.

Even though there were several basic spelling mistakes, I give an initial thumbs-up to our new glitzy programme which was very hot off the press containing references to the Whitby game. Shall miss Richard's always interesting and thought-provoking contributions. Hope that the 'Around the Leagues' section hasn't been dropped.

Man of the match voting was as follows,

KARL HAWLEY 26 votes

Matt Dodds 3
Lee Chilton 2

Charlie Price
Stuart Pierpoint. All 1 point
Dan Scarr
Drew Canavan


Winner of the wine was John Johnson

Thanks to all who took part.

Remembering the 5-3 win against them last year and they won the first game 6-3 I did think there may be a few thrills and spills, their certainly was that, a thrilling game.  i'd have never predicted the scoreline after the first half hour when Nantwich should have been out of sight, it was just awful, it seemed like an all too familiar script was being played out, fortunately we did something about it and tore it up!

Goals change matches and Hawley's finishing (and brilliant play to set up the 4th) was clinical, we really started to play some good stuff up front once the confidence went up and could have had more goals, mind you so could they! the two very near misses towards the end where heart in mouth moments! Price's positioning was poor for a couple of the goals but he pulled off two stunning saves which proved crucial. 4-4 would have been the right result but who cares! thought thier penalty had more of a case than ours.

Very much a work in progress, (need to tighten up at the back for sure) but a vital win, if we'd lost heavily last night (which looked like being the case early on) following on from a 4-0 defeat things could have started to unravel.

Thought the new programme was excellent, not that there was anything wrong with the previous incarnation which I have always found a good read although it did have rather a pre internet age look about it.  387 on a Monday night as opposed to 362 for the same match on a early season Tuesday last year, A little higher but I don't really  see it increasing gates, the obvious key to getting more punters in is to win matches, whatever day of the week it is.

redpike wrote:Even though there were several basic spelling mistakes, I give an initial thumbs-up to our new glitzy programme which was very hot off the press containing references to the Whitby game. Shall miss Richard's always interesting and thought-provoking contributions. Hope that the 'Around the Leagues' section hasn't been dropped.

Thanks for your comments. Richard will continue to contribute, just that articles may not be individually credited as such.

Around the Leagues will be returning from Saturday.

Not much to add i'm afraid. The first 30 minutes were very lacklustre and as others have said, Nantwich could have been out of sight.

Thankfully, we woke up after then and played some good stuff, Hawley in particular was excellent.

Defensively....dear oh dear...much work to be done there I think.