Clitheroe 1
Nantwich Town 1
League (NPL Division 1 West)

Match Report

Nantwich Town drew a game for only the second time this season with a 1-1 draw against Clitheroe at the EcoGiants Stadium.

Kai Evans missed out through suspension after accruing 5 yellow cards. Courtney Meppen-Walters came in in a change of system by Jon Moran.

Veron Parny shot wide via a deflection for the first corner of the game.

Just 4 minutes in came a big opening for Callum Saunders, given a rare chance to play up front, he beared down on goal and saw keeper Hakan Burton slip but could only hit it at him. The smallest of dinks and it would have been 1-0.

The sizaeable Sefton Gonzales headed wide with two handfuls of Troy Bourne’s shirt in his grasp.

Saunders didn’t have to wait long to make amends for his earlier miss. A quarter of an hour in and the ball dropped kindly for him in the box but he was quick to react and roll it under Burton for his 4th goal of the season.

Sam Olawumi headed over the bar from a Clitheroe corner, before Ben Garratt had to be sharp off his line to block from Luke Gill after Meppen-Walters sold him slightly short with a backpass.

Parny whipped an effort narrowly over the crossbar as the home side bounced back well from going behind early.

Moran made his first tactical tweak shortly after, going from a 5 at the back to a 4 with Bourne temporarily shifting into midfield.

This stabilised things and allowed the Dabbers to start building chances again.

The ball broke in the box for Byron Harrison and Burton clumsily, but cleanly in the eyes of the referee, got to the ball.

Saunders had the ball in the net again but was denied by the offside flag.

Olawumi miscued another shot for the home side, then Saunders once more came close, firing over off his right foot on the cusp of half time. It was not inconceivable that he could have had a first half hat-trick.

Another adjustment from Moran came with the half time sub of Matty Tweedley for Nathan Sandison, and that too worked well. His tenacious running caused Clitheroe problems from the earliest moments of the second half.

He snuck in behind on 52 minutes but couldn’t quite find Saunders with his ball across.

Tom Pratt drove a shot into a crowd of bodies as they refused to close him down from the angle so he decided to go for it.

Then Tweedley curled over the bar as he looked for his first Nantwich goal.

Pratt fired wide as the Dabbers continued to play some sharp football but were not troubling Burton enough in the Clitheroe goal.

It was then Clitheroe manager Jimmy Bell’s turn to use his bench to good effect. A double sub on 70 minutes gave them more legs in the middle and it showed immediately.

A Blues corner was flicked out to the edge of the box and blasted back in towards goal, it could have gone anywhere but was just blocked away.

The next corner was not dealt with anywhere near as well. A rare lapse in the defensive set up allowed Gonzales a virtually unchallenged header which was nothing but in. All square with 15 or so minutes to go.

Gonzales was being allowed far too much space in general play as well, where in the first half Paddy Kennedy and Meppen-Walters were engaging him high they now dropped deeper and allowed him to dictate far too readily.

A header looped wide for Clitheroe and another last ditch block stopped another effort.

The home side wasted a direct free kick not far outside the Dabbers box. A series of Nantwich corners relieved some pressure but were all wasted; the delivery of Sandison was missed after his withdrawal.

The home side had a couple of openings to perhaps win it. One was flashed across the face of goal, and the last was a header planted over the crossbar; it was more than possible that Garratt put him off in trying to get a hand to the cross in.

The draw was the right result, 70 good minutes and 20 less good the gist of it, although Moran saw it slightly differently after the game when reflecting on the first draw of his managerial career. One thing not in doubt was a magnificent crowd of over 1,000, a few dozen Dabbers in that number for the longest league trip of the season.

Teams
Clitheroe: Hakan Burton (C), Jacob Hanson, Dylan Dwyer, Sam Olawumi (Jake Connelly, 71), Mark Hughes, Charlie Hayes-Green, Emerich Poilly, Luke Gill, Sefton Gonzales, Veron Parny (Louis Potts, 65), Connor High (Ross Dent, 71)

Subs not used: Sean McConville, Javaun Splatt

Goal: Gonzales (74)

Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, James Melhado, Perry Bircumshaw, Troy Bourne (C) (Joel Connolly, 71), Courtney Meppen-Walters, Paddy Kennedy, Callum Saunders (Ali Hayder, 81), Kelvin Mellor, Byron Harrison, Tom Pratt, Nathan Sandison (Matty Tweedley, 46)

Subs not used: Joe Robbins, Daz Thornton

Goal: Saunders (15)

Attendance: 1,009

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