Kendal Town 1
Nantwich Town 3
League (NPL Premier Division)

Match Report

Tuesday 27th January.2008.


Kendal Town 1 v NANTWICH TOWN 3
Carl Osman.60 (pen) Michael Lennon. 32.
Dave Walker.44.
Dave Macpherson.50

Nantwich: Jones. Smith. Francis. Tinson. Whittaker. Gibson. Carter. MacPherson. Walker. Lennon.Tickle. Substitutes: Griggs. Jack. Blackhurst. Beeston. Roberts g/k

Nantwich, on their second visit of the season to the Lakeland Radio Stadium, were again delayed on their journey and so a late arrival left little time for preparation and on an extremely wet surface found them defending the slope in the first period. And it was Kendal who came out of the traps first with Nantwich having to withstand a barrage of attacks one of which, brilliantly thwarted by Dave Whittaker who managed to divert striker Alex Taylor away from Jones in the Nantwich goal who, having committed himself, left a yawning gap for the home side to exploit. Meanwhile, at the other end, a promising run from midfield by Dave Macpherson went uninterrupted until a Kendal defender just managed to narrow the channel in which MacPherson had progressed whilst Dave Tickle, playing as a winger, as opposed to his customary left back position, was a shade unlucky with a free kick from just outside the area. Nantwich slowly grew in confidence and on 24 minutes Tickle set up Michael Lennon – Lennon in turn bringing in Ashley Carter who then spurned a great chance to open the scoring but a miss kicked shot let the home side off the hook. Three minutes later, and Lennon flicked the ball into the path of the well placed Dave Walker whose profligacy in a one on one situation with the home ‘keeper Newnes ended when he blazed over the bar from close range. However, Nantwich were not to be outdone and on 32 minutes went ahead, albeit against the run of play, through Michael Lennon. During the build up, Dave MacPherson played a long ball out of defence aimed for Lennon - Newnes came to collect – failed to hold on to the ball after Lennon challenged him, leaving Lennon to stroke the ball home for his 19th goal of the season. A minute before the break Nantwich went further ahead through Walker. On this occasion, it was former Coventry City defender Liam Francis who produced a great run from defence to play in Michael Lennon close to the bye line and after Lennon cut the ball back inside for Walker the Nantwich striker remained cool before stroking the ball home from close range to notch his 19th goal of the season.

Half Time. Kendal Town 0 v NANTWICH TOWN 2.

The early minutes of the second half saw Nantwich go further ahead. Again, Francis was the playmaker – the left back producing yet another great run from deep – this time delivering a great cross to the far post where it was met by MacPherson, who made no mistake with a well placed header to score his 3rd goal for Nantwich since joining from Leek Town. But on the hour, controversy reigned. A Kendal attack saw the ball played into the Nantwich area from which Tinson produced a last ditch tackle before witnessing the ball depart for a corner. The referee meanwhile signalled a flag kick whilst at the same time an assistant referee was seen to raise his flag. After lengthy consultation the referee reversed his earlier decision before pointing to the penalty spot – booked Darren Tinson, leaving Carl Osman to clinically dispatch the spot kick to give the home side a life line. Credit to Nantwich, the controversy failed to shake their confidence and in the final quarter hour Walker and Carter twice had shots cleared off the line – a Danny Griggs 30 yard free kick, destined for the top corner of the net, was miraculously tipped behind for a corner before Griggs then went close to puncturing the battered Kendal defence after yet another of his free kick specials was hacked away, this time from the foot of a post just before the ball looked to be spinning into the net.

The win elevates Nantwich to 3rd in the table ahead of the weekend’s visit of Frickley Athletic. Meanwhile, in an after match apology to Nantwich secretary Bernard Lycett, referee Mr Paul Marsden conceded he made a mistake in changing his original decision of first awarding a corner to Kendal to that of awarding a penalty when in fact his original decision was the correct one in that Tinson’s challenge did not impede the Kendal attacker.


Nantwich head coach Steve Davis was not only satisfied with the victory but was particularly pleased with the overall performance when he said:- “ We were late in arriving so that meant preparation wasn’t up to our normal standard. They (Kendal) came at us from the start and for the first twenty minutes put us on the back foot without actually hurting us. But, against the run of play we went in at the break 2 – 0 ahead and then in the second half took the game to them before scoring a third. The controversial penalty decision failed to knock the lads back and credit to them for turning in a gutsy performance, which at the moment places us on course for a play-off position”.

Match report written by Phil Johnson