Nantwich Town 1
Rushall Olympic 2
League (NPL Premier Division)

Match Report

Nantwich Town fell to their first defeat in six games after being defeated 2-1 by Rushall Olympic at the Weaver Stadium.

Rushall took the lead through Gurjit Singh after a quarter of an hour, when the former Sutton Coldfield midfielder finished a neat move by sliding the ball past Krystian Burzynski.

They doubled their lead before the break when Danny Waldron was played in behind the defence and he finished well.

Harry Clayton tapped home a Jordan Davies cross to bring Nantwich back into the game, but they could not find an equaliser.

Dabbers boss Dave Cooke made eight changes from the midweek draw at Warrington, with Clayton, Matt Bell, Nathan Cotterell, Clayton McDonald, Declan O’Riordan, Kallam Boyle and Krystian Burzynski all starting.

After nine minutes, Clayton (pictured in action) could have given Nantwich the lead as a mistake in the defence allowed the ex-Kidsgrove striker in, but the striker slashed the ball wide.

The visitors took the lead soon after as Singh played his way through the defence on the left of the area. His step-over fooled Jamie Morgan, and he was able to slide the ball past Krystian Burzynski at the far post.

There was even more bad news soon after as Clayton McDonald was injured and had to come off, replaced by Toby Mullarkey.

On the half hour, Clayton had an open goal to shoot at outside the box, but the striker couldn’t quite switch the ball onto his preferred left foot and it went wide.

Five minutes before the interval, Rushall grabbed a second. Waldron was played through despite offside protests, and he simply had to tuck it home past Burzynski.

Nantwich scored soon after half-time, as Jordan Davies found space on the right-hand side. The Welshman squared it into Clayton in the area, who was able to tap it past Biddle for 1-2.

Waldron had a chance to double his score tally after 56 minutes, as he found space on the edge of the box. However, his effort was poor and was sliced wide for a goal-kick.

Many of the Nantwich support thought they had equalised just after the hour mark, as Bell fired the ball from the edge of the area, but the shot scraped the post.

With 20 minutes to go, Nantwich had a free-kick by Danny Griggs’ effort was straight into the hands of Biddle.

Young full-back Kallam Boyle had a fine game and he almost grabbed an assist as his free-kick found Troy Bourne, but the defender’s header didn’t trouble Biddle.

The Dabbers huffed and puffed by there were no more clear-cut chances.

Nantwich: Burzynski, Morgan, Boyle, O’Riordan, McDonald (Mullarkey 19?), Hughes (C) (Bourne 60?), Cotterell (Walley 46?), Bell, Clayton, Davies, Griggs. Subs not used: Wildin, Hawkins (GK)

Match report written by Ryan Batty (www.nantwichtownfc.co.uk)