Avro 2
Nantwich Town 1
League (NPL Division 1 West)

Match Report

Nantwich were defeated 2-1 by an Avro side that played the majority of the game with 10 players at the Vestacare Stadium.
Tyler Hill came straight into the team after his return to the club in place of Perry Bircumshaw who was carrying a knock. Joel Connolly sadly picked up a recurrence of his previous injury and was out of the squad.

It was Hill who had the first real shot of the game, curling comfortably wide off his left foot.

Avro scored with their first proper attack in the match. A shot from the right side of the box was parried by Ben Garratt right into the path of AJ Warburton who had the simplest of tasks to tap in the rebound. Questions maybe if Garratt could have pushed it further away but there were opportunities to snuff out the attack earlier than that.

Matty Tweedley fired over the bar as Nantwich tried to bounce back quickly.

Paddy Kennedy won a header in the Avro box but their keeper and captain Grant Shenton was there to claim it.

The game then broke down into a bitty, stop-start affair, lots of fouls given and cards dished out (6 in the first half).

One of those fouls created a chance for the Dabbers to equalise, Kelvin Mellor heading wide at the back post from a good Tom Pratt free kick delivery.

Avro got an effort on target but easy for Garratt, before Kai Evans lashed a shot well over the bar. Liam Ellis then had the ball nicked off his toes in the Dabbers box.

The biggest moment of the half came in the 38th minute. Max Harrop, on a yellow card for dissent early on, was shown a second yellow for simulation, adjudged to have dived in the Nantwich box. After reviewing the video, let’s put it as plainly as possible: it wasn’t a dive, in fact it probably should have been an Avro penalty, and that red card will be overturned.

Adjusting to having a player less meant Avro allowed some space for Nantwich to create more chances. Evans missed a better chance, seeing the ball drop to him in the box he showed an unusual lack of composure in blazing over the bar.

Then it was Callum Saunders’ turn to miscue, also firing over from a promising position.

There was still time, however, for Nantwich to find a way through before the break. With the last kick of the half, Evans curled brilliantly past an unmoved Shenton from a free kick put back to the keeper’s side that now makes Evans the second top scorer in the NPL West. A big momentum swing just before half time.

But it was extinguished less than 2 minutes into the second period. A deep cross was met all too easily by Geffry Ebhote with a looping header past Garratt. The technique was good but the defending far from it. It was also one of those strange goals that was scored ‘earlier’ in the game than the one before it (the 47th minute in the second half after the 49th minute of the first).

Another close effort from the home side sparked the first Nantwich change, with Nathan Sandison coming on for Tom Pratt. He fired into a crowd of bodies soon after.

Tweedley did very well to turn out of a tight space and cross right across the face of goal but no one could give the ball the finish it deserved for the work that went into it.

Deane Smalley should have made it 3-1 minutes later. He headed wide after Garratt lost the flight of a corner into the box and left his goal vacant.

A freakish deflection at the other end almost made it level the very next minute, the ball looping up and bouncing off the top of the bar for a Nantwich corner.

The minute after that, Saunders missed the target with an ambitious overhead kick, the move leading up to it probably the best the Dabbers put together in the match.

Warburton very nearly got his second of the game in the 68th minute, hitting the inside of the post with a clean strike.

David Fitzpatrick hit the wall with a free kick for Avro, before a grateful Shenton managed to dive on the ball at the other end after smart work from Hill to recover a seemingly lost cause.

Another decent breakaway ended for the Dabbers with Evans sliding the ball wide. Despite scoring another superb goal this was an off day for Kai.

But it was an off day for pretty much the entire Nantwich side. The second half was a masterclass in how not to play against 10 men, the home side toying with the visitors at times near the end to send the majority of the capacity crowd of 178 home happy.

These odd days are less regular than they were but still crop up, this one a bit reminiscent of Mossley away and very reminiscent of Newcastle away at the end of last season. Their random appearances are as perplexing as they are frustrating. Is it as simple as the old Sunday league cliche of ‘they don’t fancy it’ somedays? And how can they be shaken out of this funk during a game when its set in? Good problems to have to work out while being 3rd in the league.

Teams
Avro FC: Grant Shenton (C), Dominic Smalley, David Fitzpatrick, Kane Hickman, Geffry Ebhote, Deane Smalley, Max Harrop, AJ Warburton, Benito Lowe (Jack Morrow, 46), Liam Ellis (Kyle Hawley, 77), Chiekh Thiam

Subs not used: Sam Davidson, Kane Wallwork, James Dwyer

Goals: Warburton (16), Ebhote (47)

Red card: Harrop (38)

Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, James Melhado, Tyler Hill, Kelvin Mellor (Joe Robbins, 67), Troy Bourne (C), Paddy Kennedy, Callum Saunders, Matty Tweedley, Byron Harrison, Tom Pratt (Nathan Sandison, 50), Kai Evans

Subs not used: Ali Hayder, Courtney Meppen-Walters, Perry Bircumshaw

Goal: Evans (45+4)

Attendance: 178

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