By Liam Price
Nantwich Town secured their first win of the season to progress to the next round of the FA Trophy with a 2-1 win over Boston Town.
With 2 games in 48 hours and a long trip for this one, Luke Goddard rotated his side with a first start for Luke Enright and debuts for Liam Hall in goal and Tom Graves in defence, while players like Josh Hancock and Byron Moore didn’t even travel.
Harry Limb seemed to carry the most threat in open play for Boston, getting round Hall but with a heavy touch that removed any semblance of a chance.
After a period of settling in the Dabbers did start to control things and took the lead in the 22nd minute.
Iwan Roberts powered down the right and managed to get a shot away from a narrow angle which their keeper Wilson couldn’t hold and Luke Enright was there to get his first Dabbers goal on the rebound.
Mason McKay tried to test Wilson again with a left footed strike from range but he was up to the challenge.
Paddy Kennedy got a bad contact on a header from a corner which would have been a good goalscoring chance had the contact been right, in the end it was an easy save.
Kennedy then almost put the ball into his own net on the stroke of half time after what seemed like a miscommunication between himself and Hall but it dribbled wide.
In the second half, Hall made probably his best save with good reactions to push away a toe poked attempt.
There was very little Hall could do about Boston’s equaliser in the 61st minute. If anyone was to get them back into the tie it felt it would be Limb, and it was he that let fly with a free kick from 25 yards out that flew into the roof of the net. It may have been aided by a small deflection off the Dabbers wall but it was still a great effort.
Nantwich responded by subbing on Harry Davis and pushing Aidy Roxburgh onto the right wing with Roberts making way shortly after hitting a free kick of his own straight at Wilson.
Within 2 minutes this tweak paid off perfectly. Joe Piggott, who was doing a great job controlling the midfield already, went up a level again with a brilliant pass that played in Roxburgh who was able to slide it past Wilson with his left foot. After 2 goals in 60 Nantwich appearances before this week, Roxburgh had now doubled that tally in the space of 4 days and 2 games.
That was the last serious action of the tie barring a touch from Hall to turn away a dangerous Boston low cross, but on the whole the Dabbers closed the tie out well to get through to the next round.
Teams
Boston Town: Joshua Wilson, Finley Ging, Kallum Smith (Oliver Houlston, 67), Jordan Tate, Richard Ford (C) (Kristers Zaluzinskis, 69), Kyle Watkins, Harvey Graves (Fraser Bayliss, 46), Shaun Archer (Thomas Siddons, 46), Harry Limb, Ted Gibbons, Zak Munton
Goal: Limb (61′)
Nantwich Town: Liam Hall, Aidy Roxburgh, James Baillie, Joe Piggott (C), Harry Davis, Tom Graves, Iwan Roberts (Harry Davis, 64), Ethan Hartshorn (Joe Collins, 62), Luke Enright, Fenton Green, Mason McKay (Ollie Pope, 33)
Subs not used: Zac Prior, Troy Bourne
Goals: Enright (22′), Roxburgh (66′)