By Liam Price, photo by Gordon Marino
Nantwich Town and Avro will need a replay to decide who goes to the next round of the FA Cup after a 1-1 draw at the Vestacare Stadium.
Alex Panter and Ben Greenop came into the starting 11 after impressing off the bench at Stafford on Monday, while new signing Junior Brown was on the bench.
On Monday, the Dabbers found themselves a goal down after 16 seconds. Amazingly, they managed to beat that number with their opening goal in this the very next game.
From the kick off, Avro worked it backwards. The ball ran under the foot of a defender and had to be passed back hurriedly to their keeper Ciaran O’Shea. Nantwich pressed, led by Byron Harrison, and O’Shea struck the ball against the Nantwich number 9 and into the back of the net.
A study of the footage with a stopwatch clocks the goal at about 8.8 seconds. That is faster than Ethon Varian’s goal against Hyde in 2020 and becomes the fastest Nantwich Town goal on record. According to Nantwich’s club historian, there is an anecdotal record of a goal in the 1920s that was faster, but understandably that is very difficult to verify.
A quite unbelievable start to the game, and any team from non-league to Premier League will do well to beat that time in the entirety of the FA Cup this season. In fact, it may be high up the list of the fastest goals ever in the world’s oldest cup competition. The fastest goal from the First Round onwards is 9 seconds in 2010 which Harrison beats, and there is a record of a goal after 4 seconds in 2001 in the qualifying rounds, so Byron sticking out his right leg in that moment has made some real history.
Avro’s Cheikh Thiam had the home side’s first shot of the game when curling off target in the 10th minute as they tried to overcome the shock of that start.
Perry Bircumshaw won a corner after getting onto a Harrison flick on in the box and forcing an excellent clearance.
Nantwich were testing Avro’s defensive line regularly, finding themselves offside on a handful of occasions but keeping them honest.
As the rain began to fall heavily in Oldham, Avro might have found themselves level 5 minutes before half time; a free kick was swung in and Nantwich didn’t deal with it very well, Ben Garratt having to make at least one save before gratefully diving on the ball.
The Dabbers had a couple of chances to extend the lead right before half time, both falling to Greenop. The first was better, bursting into the Avro half on his own he took a heavy touch at just the wrong moment which allowed O’Shea to get to it.
Then, from a corner he acrobatically tried to hook it over the keeper and saw it headed off the line. There were shades of the kind of goal Zlatan Ibrahimovic occasionally pulled off, but not to be here this time.
Avro were much improved in the second half. Not long into it, there was a pause of a few minutes after an accident in the crowd meant a supporter needed some medical attention. The physios of both sides rushed over which always raises concern, but thankfully there was soon a thumbs up and the game could resume. Jon Moran shared his best wishes after the game and the club can only echo that.
It is undoubtedly hard to get back into the right headspace to play again when at first there’s a worry that there could be a very serious medical issue in the crowd, but Avro managed that better and started to create chances almost immediately after the restart.
Kyle Hawley, Avro’s top scorer, had his first sighter of goal when forcing a low save from Garratt.
Then there was a moment that would become more significant a little later. Avro captain Jack Morrow, on a yellow card, was penalised again in the 56th minute for pulling back Joel Connolly. The position on the pitch and covering players probably played in his favour but another day and another referee may have seen that differently.
No more than 2 minutes after this, Avro were level. And the controversy came as it was Morrow who scored it. It was a powerful strike through a crowd of bodies on the edge of the box that meant Garratt could not see it, but would not have saved it anyway. Interestingly, Morrow was subbed straight after, in a similar vein to the situation at Sporting Khalsa a couple of weeks prior.
The game then descended into one of stop-start fouls and subs, but heading towards the last 10 minutes the home side began to build a head of steam and spurned several chances to win the tie.
Sub Oliver Putnam fired into the side netting from a deep cross, then Hawley planted a header wide that looked easier to score from a great ball in. Given his form the net should have bulged there.
Nantwich had to clear off the line from the next Avro effort, then a header was put wide from a corner.
The Dabbers were really riding their luck now, the impressive Thiam cut onto his right foot and sent a shot towards goal that was pushed behind by Garratt.
Into a long period of stoppage time after the crowd issue earlier, there was still time for either team to win it but only Avro looked like doing so. The last big chance somehow didn’t go in, to the bemusement of everyone in the crowd who thought it had, in the end it may have been one that hit the back wall then the rear of the net to look as if it had.
The Dabbers held out and will host Avro again on Tuesday evening (7.45pm kick-off).
Teams
Avro FC: Cian O’Shea, Jack Kenny, David Fitzpatrick, Joel Igwenwanne (Harry Salt, 63), Fortune Maphosa, Jack Morrow (C) (Kane Hickman, 59), Sam Davidson, Cheikh Thiam, Kyle Hawley, Owen Warburton (Oliver Putnam, 68), Dylan Gairns (Justin Iwobi, 79)
Subs not used: Deane Smalley, Dominic Smalley, Cameron Mason
Goal: Morrow (58)
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, Aidy Roxburgh, Perry Bircumshaw (Josh Williams, 64), Kelvin Mellor (C), Ben Hockenhull, Paddy Kennedy, Alex Panter (Byron Moore, 69), Fenton Green (Callum Saunders, 79), Byron Harrison, Joel Connolly, Ben Greenop (Paddy Jarrett, 59)
Subs not used: Junior Brown, Joe Robbins, Rui Clarke-Phillips
Goal: Harrison (1)
Attendance: 169