Frickley Athletic 3
Nantwich Town 0
League (NPL Premier Division)

Match Report

Frickley Athletic 3-0 Nantwich Town
Evo-Stik NPL Premier Division – Saturday 10th November 2012
Dabbers boss, Jimmy Quinn, lamented his side’s defensive performance as they lost their first away game in seven at Frickley Athletic.
Nantwich went down 3-0 to The Blues who scored all three goals in the first half with Luke Hinsley grabbing a brace and Gavin Allott adding the third.
After seeing his side fall behind after just 74 seconds, Quinn told www.nantwichtownfc.co.ukthat the players owed more to the travelling Dabbers faithful.
“We owe our supporters more than that and we’ll start with a home win on Saturday, the fans were fantastic again and didn’t stop getting behind the lads even when we were three down.”
Quinn was infuriated by his side’s silly errors as they fell three behind in a half they dominated.
“We’ve got a problem with teams that are physical against us and that’s not the first game that’s been the case,” he added.
“To be honest they showed great appetite to do the right things, they got about us and our lads up front hardly had a kick they were that tight.
“I have to say the goals that we gave away were disappointing, one was a mistake by Lewis and the other two were just straight balls knocked over the top and we couldn’t deal with them.”
The first came when Lewis Short attempted a back-pass to keeper Jonny Brain but didn’t make good connection and Hinsley latched on to the loose ball before smashing home into the bottom right hand corner.
Nantwich almost replied immediately but Sean Cooke’s effort from inside the area was well saved by Tom Woodhead.
More frustration came for The Dabbers just after the quarter hour as Matty Bloor fed through Hinsley again and the Frickley number 9 made no mistake with a smart finish from the corner of the area.
Nantwich continued to press to get back in the game but failed to turn possession into any attacks of note and the game was put beyond their reach five minutes from half-time as Terry Barwick’s clearance went over The Dabbers defence and fell invitingly for Allott who gave the hosts the comfortable 3-0 advantage.
Cooke and Christian Smith went close in the second-half but neither forced saves from Woodhead as their shots from range fired over.
Nantwich were thankful to some wonderful saves from keeper Jonny Brain as he prevented Allott and Jason Yates with a fine double save ten minutes from time.
The Dabbers boss now says the lads have a lot of hard work ahead if they are to regain their spot in the EvoStik Northern Premier Division play-off places.
“We’ve conceded a lot of soft goals all season, I think we’re too nice at times and we need to toughen up and demand a little bit more out of each other.
“That’s about four or five games I’ve counted this season where we’ve conceded one goal and then conceded another goal within minutes.”
“That tells me there are two things happening, either we’re looking round blaming someone else or we’re not concentrating.”
The former Northern Ireland international added that next weekend’s derby with Stafford Rangers couldn’t have come at a better time for the lads to bounce back and toughen up in front of the home faithful.
“We’ve got a good bunch of lads in there but we’ve got to know the importance between winning and losing, which is important, if you come in at 1-0 down you’re still in the game but when you come in at 3-0 it’s a different ball game.
“The sign of a good team is how you bounce back, we’ve been very disappointing today particularly the defending, you stand there with disbelief at times with the goals we concede.
“I’ve said to the lads it’s not about what we do on Saturday it’s what we do on Tuesday and Thursday and we’ve got to get it nailed on, start well and push our authority on to Stafford.”
Nantwich: Brain, Cardon, Short (Smith, 45), Hughes (Moss, 69), McDonald, Cooke, McLachlan, Everall, Wilson, Maguire (Lane, 61). Subs:Campbell, Ambage.

Match report written by www.nantwichtownfc.co.uk