Nantwich Town 1
Nuneaton Town 0
FA Cup (4th Round Qualifying)

Match Report

Nantwich Town 1 –0 Nuneaton Town
FA Cup with Budweiser 4th Qualifying Round
Entertainment Rating: ***
Man of the Match: Fraser McLachlan
Attendance: 1002
A goalkeeping howler from Nuneaton’s Neil Collett gifted Nantwich Town their passage to the First Round proper of the FA Cup with Budweiser.
Collett dropped Matt Lowe’s cross into his own goal just after the hour mark, despite being under no pressure from The Dabbers frontline.
Nuneaton were the dominant team throughout and despite not creating many chances in the first half they could have taken the lead when Danny Mitchley headed over just before half time.
Gareth Dean nearly gave the Boro the lead in first half stoppage time but his header was cleared off the line by Aleksandrs Solovjovs.
Nantwich were immediately put on the back foot in the second half and should have been behind only ninety seconds after the restart as Danny Glover beat Mat Bailey to a long ball but the ex-Port Vale man saw his shot blocked by Darren Moss.
The game’s only goal came on 69 minutes when Lowe broke down the right and scuffed his cross harmlessly towards to Collett, but the man on loan from Mansfield Town dropped the ball over the line much to the delight of the Nantwich faithful.
Nantwich captain, Chris Flynn, was sent off with 12 minutes to go for a late tackle on Glover, setting up a nervy finish.
The Dabbers could have doubled their lead in the closing stages through Niall Maguire but he saw his shot crash against the post.
The one goal was enough though, much to the delight of Nantwich manager Jimmy Quinn who reserved special praise for his team’s defence.
He said: “The lads were outstanding, they gave 110%, I am so proud of them.
“(Mat) Bailey and (Darren) Moss were outstanding they cleared everything that was thrown at us.”
Goals: Lowe 70
Nantwich (4-3-3): Brain, Lowe, Solovjovs, Maguire, Bailey, Moss, Cooke, Flynn (C), Mills, Lennon (Everall, 73), McLachlan. Subs: Jack, Mitchell, Chapman, Adaggio, Quinn, Foster.
Nuneaton (4-3-3): Collett, Ward, Forsdick, Noon (c), Dean, Hadland, Thornton, Walker (Armson, 80), Glover (Misevic, 84), Mitchley, Pugh (Moore, 60). Subs: Albrighton, Marsden, Baker, Alcock.

Match report written by Ashley Houghton