Chasetown 4
Nantwich Town 0
League (NPL Division 1 West)

Match Report

Nantwich suffered their biggest league defeat in nearly 2 years as Chasetown won 4-0 at The Scholars Ground on Tuesday night.
In his first game since being confirmed as manager on a permanent basis, Jon Moran named an unchanged line-up, with new (and returning) player/coach Daz Thornton on the bench.

The Dabbers had a good first half, with a lot of that good coming through Kai Evans. He was delivering balls into the box and beating his markers with regularity but early on nothing was really testing Chasetown keeper Curtis Pond.

The first chance of the game fell to the home side on 10 minutes when the Dabbers failed to see the ball out for a goal kick (although they thought they had), a Chasetown player poked the ball to Joey Butlin who whipped it over the bar from a good position.

Tom Pratt hit a free kick straight at Pond before a Chasetown free kick caused Ben Garratt some more problems as he had to get down low to keep it out.

The closest either side came to scoring in the first period was through that man Evans when he hit the crossbar with a cross/shot that caught out Pond and very nearly dropped in.

Another Kai shot was deflected for a corner, before Chasetown top scorer Jack Langston fired straight at Garratt after the Dabbers defence riskily backed off him.

Callum Saunders grew into the half and had a couple of moments, a good pass to Pratt in the box was scuppered by the offside flag before he was very well challenged in the box as he prepared to shoot a couple of minutes later.

A Saunders free kick hit low took a nick and went wide as the subsequent corner was headed over the bar to finish off a decent half for the Dabbers.

That is what made what followed in the second half so hard to swallow. Chasetown immediately played higher up the pitch and exposed a lack of cover in wide areas, resulting in the first goal.

It was a full-back to full-back combination as Jordan Evans crossed for Oli Hayward to rise highest and head in at the back post.

The home side doubled their lead 5 minutes later. Once again the Dabbers were running towards their goal as Chasetown charged forward. A ball was slid through towards Danny Glover but it hit James Melhado and cruelly rolled past Garratt for an own goal. But the fact that right back Melhado and left back Perry Bircumshaw were stood side by side in the middle of the penalty area suggested something was going badly wrong in the defensive line.

It was no surprise that it was Evans who looked most likely to breathe life back into the Dabbers’ hopes in this game, a winding and direct run saw him hit the side netting from the left side of the box.

A free kick from Matty Tweedley was hooked towards goal by Paddy Kennedy but easy for Pond.

But things got worse on 74 minutes. A free kick was poorly defended, it hit Melhado and bounced to Mitchell Clark who had the simplest task to fire past Garratt and make it 3-0.

On 76 minutes it was 4. Another simple free kick that was played forward was won on the second ball by Chasetown and a smart touch round the corner played in Joe Thompson to run through and score. Well worked but far too easy.

There is a pattern developing of Nantwich conceding goals in batches. There were 2 in 8 minutes and 2 in 3 minutes against Sporting Khalsa, 2 in 5 minutes against Congleton, and 2 in 6 minutes and 2 in 2 minutes in this game. Games are being turned around or taken away from the Dabbers in these lapses in concentration.

If it weren’t for Garratt things could have got truly embarrassing. He made two great saves, especially one from a Glover drive to push it over the bar.

Sub Nathan Sandison dragged a shot wide late on but the game was long gone. It’s hard to use a word other than capitulation to sum up how that second half unfolded, and that is a word that almost never could be thrown at Nantwich over a long period of time.

Teams
Chasetown: Curtis Pond, Oli Hayward, Jordan Evans, Kris Taylor, Mitchell Clark, Sam Wilding, Joey Butlin (George Cater, 86), Jack Langston (Joseph Thompson, 61), Danny Glover (Max Chimenes, 86), Danny O’Callaghan, Joe Dunne

Subs not used: Kai Cunningham, Matt Sargeant

Goals: Hayward (50), Melhado (OG, 56), Clark (74), Thompson (76)

Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, James Melhado, Perry Bircumshaw, Kelvin Mellor (Darren Thornton, 81), Troy Bourne, Paddy Kennedy, Callum Saunders (Nathan Sandison, 74), Matty Tweedley (Cesaire Lingouba, 81), Byron Harrison, Tom Pratt (Gio Loureiro, 62), Kai Evans (Cheyenne Loureiro, 85)

Attendance: 299

Match report written by Liam Price (www.nantwichtownfc.co.uk)