Atherton Collieries 1
Nantwich Town 0
League (NPL Division 1 West)

Match Report

Atherton Collieries edged a forgettable game of football with a 1-0 win over Nantwich Town at the Dream2Reality Stadium.

Kofi Moore came in for Callum Saunders in the Dabbers’ only change from the defeat to Clitheroe last time out. Paddy Kennedy was also back on the bench after not playing since early February through injury.

There genuinely was very little to report from the first half. A couple of early corners from Nantwich, one of which was headed well wide by Perry Bircumshaw, did set the tone of a controlling performance from the visitors though, without threatening the Atherton goal however.

Aaron Dwyer dragged Atherton’s first shot wide inside the first 10 minutes.

Joel Connolly had an effort that may have been a drilled pass into Pratt that in fact bounced off the midfielder and away from the Colls goal.

Kai Evans fired straight at Sol Honor in the only shot on target of the half from either side. He had hit a free kick wide a few minutes earlier.

Atherton were guilty of overplaying with their most forceful attack, shooting over the bar when an earlier shot could have come from a better angle and in more space.

The second half couldn’t have started much better, however, for Atherton. After struggling to string more than a couple of passes together in that first half, the first time they did that in the second half they scored.

50 seconds in, a pretty simple couple of passes undid the Nantwich defence and Scott Bakkor was able to square to Dwyer. A crucial touch off the heel of Kelvin Mellor took it away from Ben Garratt and made the finish even easier for Dwyer. 14 goals in 23 games for him this season now. And another early goal conceded in a half for the Dabbers.

It’s worth expanding on this. Taking the Witton defeat on Boxing Day, widely seen as where things started to go wrong this season, as a starting point, Nantwich have conceded 43% (12 from 28) of their goals in the first 10 minutes of halfs (0-10 minutes or 45-55 minutes). So that’s nearly half the goals conceded that have gone in in periods of time that add up to less than a quarter of the total match. It’s proving a fatal flaw in the character of this team.

A big talking point came before the hour mark. The ball was loose in the box and came to Mellor with his back to goal. Former Dabber Joe Piggott lunged to try and win the ball, didn’t get it and did get some of Mellor. It would seem to meet the definition of a penalty but the referee didn’t give it. This was the same referee, Dan Sykes, who was bullied into submission by Kidsgrove in the Nantwich home game against them in January.

Nantwich had other chances, however, to make the referee’s decisions less of a factor in proceedings. Moore passed up the opportunity to shoot in the box when there may have been the hint of an opening.

Then, Matty Tweedley did let fly from the edge of the box and brought out a good save from Honor. He cut across the strike which lessened its power but it was still a strong bit of goalkeeping. Tweedley still hasn’t scored for Nantwich officially (he did score a spectacular goal as a trialist against Prescot Cables in pre-season) but has been very unlucky not to here and at Stalybridge a couple of weeks ago.

Ben Hockenhull mistimed a couple of attacking headers but did the defensive side well when cutting out an Atherton counter attack.

In the most open period of the game, sub Alex Panter should probably have scored when the ball came to him in the box but he couldn’t convert. Up the other end, Bakkor drove into the penalty area and pulled a shot of his own narrowly wide.

Another sub, Callum Saunders, saw a shot have its power taken off by a block and earlier hit the side netting via a deflection.

A final blow came three minutes from time. Perry Bircumshaw, on a yellow card from a tactical foul in the first half, was shown a second yellow for dissent and will miss the Avro game next week. That is out of character for Bircumshaw but a team run of form like this does make players act out of character.

Joel Connolly had Nantwich’s last shot which didn’t trouble Honor. Nantwich had not played that badly but had lost yet again, and now find themselves closer in points to the relegation zone than the play-off places.

Teams
Atherton Collieries: Sol Honor, Alex Doyle, Tom Warren, Calen Gallagher, Danny Lafferty, Toby Oliver, Danny Lambert (C), Joe Piggott, Tom Bentham (Kielen Adams, 80), Scott Bakkor, Aaron Dwyer (Ethan Kershaw, 74)

Subs not used: Joe Edwards, Joe Rothwell, Will Riding

Goal: Dwyer (46)

Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, James Melhado, Perry Bircumshaw, Kelvin Mellor (C), Ben Hockenhull, Joel Connolly, Kofi Moore (Callum Saunders, 71), Byron Harrison, Tom Pratt (Alex Panter, 71), Kai Evans, Matty Tweedley

Subs not used: Joe Robbins, Jon Moran, Paddy Kennedy

Red card: Bircumshaw (87)

Attendance: 264

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