By Liam Price
Avro moved to within goal difference of the top of the NPL West with a 1-0 win over Nantwich Town at the Vestacare Stadium.
Perry Bircumshaw made his first start since returning from injury in place of the suspended Ben Hockenhull, and Joe Robbins and Byron Harrison also returned to the starting lineup.
The game started at a great pace but without the dramatic start the last time the Dabbers travelled to the Vestacare Stadium when Byron Harrison scored the fastest goal on record for the Dabbers.
Alex Panter saw an opening in the box quickly snuffed out by Cheick Thiam.
From the corner that followed, Paddy Kennedy headed over the corner of post and bar.
Panter had a better chance just short of the half hour when a free kick dropped kindly for him in the box. Rarely for Alex, he didn’t make a clean contact on the ball and pulled the shot wide.
Then Avro and the league’s top scorer Kyle Hawley had his first look at the Dabbers goal, with Ben Garratt stretching he scuffed his shot narrowly wide of the far post.
Oli Finney won a 50/50 in the middle of the pitch but got under his attempt from the edge of the box and sent it sailing over the bar.
There were n0 shots on target at all in the first half, but that changed pretty quickly in the second period. Avro came out highly motivated and Nantwich could not go with them.
Harry Salt dissolved the Dabbers defence more than once, hitting the post only a couple of minutes in with a deflected shot from the angle.
He wasn’t to be denied a few minutes later. Thiam was causing more problems on their right hand side and it was his cross that got through to him at the back post where he was able to head it in from close range. It was a teasing and difficult delivery but you really felt the Nantwich defence and Garratt between them could have prevented that outcome.
Their set pieces started bearing fruit too, a couple of corners were headed over the bar from decent positions.
And Garratt did once again prove his value to the Nantwich team with a couple of vital saves, one in particular saw him palming away on the floor after a deflection took a shot in the opposite direction to that he’d committed to.
Salt was flying and nearly got a brilliant second, bringing down a ball into the box and volleying just over the bar.
Sliding in from a deflected free kick he might have scored again were it not for Garratt bravely blocking.
Thiam forced Garratt to parry away at his near post before Adam Owen skied a free kick.
By keeping the score down there was always the hope the Dabbers could nick something, and they almost did. Sub Harry Bower made a good impact when he came on, and so nearly equalised with a low shot in the box that was magnificently turned around the post by Cam Mason.
Byron Harrison headed straight at the keeper, and in the last seconds a Joe Robbins free kick came off an Avro head and went agonisingly wide of the far post to see the points head to Avro.
It’s no secret that this has been a particularly brutal run of fixtures for the Dabbers. They’ve had to play 6 of the current top 7 in the space of a month. However, in the last couple of games there have been some concerning echoes of the bad spell from 2024 into early 2025 that can’t be allowed to linger like that one did.
Teams
Avro FC: Cam Mason, Cheikh Thiam, Adam Owen, Fortune Maphosa, David Fitzpatrick, Kane Hickman (Jack Morrow, 77), Sam Davidson (Owen Warburton, 87), Jake Cottrell (C), Kyle Hawley (Darren Ehimamiego, 81), Harry Salt (Ethan Kershaw, 87), Ryley Smith
Sub not used: Lewis Scanlan
Goal: Salt (51)
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, Joel Connolly (C), James Baillie, Oli Finney (Joe Collins, 77), Perry Bircumshaw (Aidy Roxburgh, 64), Paddy Kennedy, Byron Moore (Harry Bower, 73), Joe Robbins, Byron Harrison, Alex Panter (Rui Clarke-Phillips, 77), Paddy Jarrett (Callum Saunders, 46)