Nantwich Town 5
Bradford (Park Avenue) 0
FA Trophy (2nd Round replay)

Match Report

Nantwich Town made history by reaching the third round of the FA Trophy for the first time by thumping Bradford Park Avenue 5-0.

Matt Bell’s beautiful left foot finish opened the scoring six minutes before the interval to put the Dabbers into the lead.

Nantwich skipper Sam Hall’s poked volley from 20 yards found the back of the net to double the lead and record his second goal of the season.

Elliott Osborne tripled the lead to put the match to bed after calmly slotting the ball past Mitchell, starting the run from the halfway mark.

The 63rd minute goal resulted in Osborne’s 15th of the campaign.

And Osborne hit the mark again, scoring from the penalty spot after team mate Liam Shotton was taken down in the 18-yard penalty area by Avenue’s Billy Priestley.

Kosylo put the cherry on top in the final minute when he picked up from a visitors' defensive error to nail the fifth goal of an incredible performance.

Nantwich Town had made two changes from their defeat to Blyth Spartans with Darren Thornton and Matty Kosylo replacing Lewis Short and Steve Jones.

While Bradford Park Avenue doubled their changes to the starting line-up as Jake
Scott, Adam Mather, Paul Marshall and Jason St Juste were in for Michael Potts,
Danny Schofield and Ryan Qualter.

The opening 45 minutes saw two sides share an even contest with end-to-end action as Nantwich showed no fear against their higher National League North opponents.

Avenue started the real threat at goal 13 minutes in as Nantwich goalkeeper Terry Smith tipped Chib Chilaka long range effort over the bar.

A tipped save by Smith to deny Avenue before an awkward corner ball in was saved again by the Dabbers goalkeeper from close range with Chilaka missing out on the lead for the visitors.

Josh Hancock started up the hosts’ turn at goal with a fast-paced strike which rattled off the bar.

Sixty seconds later saw Matty Kosylo have a peak at target providing a low shot to gather Conor Mitchell’s attention, before man of the match Bell opened the scoring.

Bradford’s Simon Ainge and Richard Marshall were replaced by Callum Chippendale and Ryan Qualter at the break in manager Martin Drury’s bid to turn the game around.

But two minutes after the restart Hall scored Nantwich’s second, and the Dabbers never looked back.

Avenue showed no sign of a significant comeback, thanks to a strong defence performance by the Evo-Stik League club.

Nantwich Town: 1 Smith, 2 White, 3 Thornton (Gordon 73’), 4 Moran, 5 Harrison, 6 Osborne, 7 Kosylo, 8 Hall © (Short 61’), 9 Shotton, 10 Bell (Bailey 83’), 11 Hancock.

Substitutes: 12 Short, 13 Burzynski, 14 Bailey, 15 Jones, 16 Gordon.

Goals: Bell (39’), Hall (47’), Osborne (63’, 73’ pen), Kosylo (90’).

Match report written by Jamie Davies (www.nantwichtownfc.co.uk)