By Liam Price, photo by Lauren Couchman
Hednesford Town went above Nantwich in the table after a 2-0 over the Dabbers at Keys Park.
The Nantwich team was unchanged from the New Year’s Day win over Newcastle Town, with the bench different as Callum Saunders was suspended and Kofi Moore made his return to the squad.
Unfortunately the game started as the last couple have for Nantwich, by conceding early. Hednesford’s first attack of the match brought the first goal, a couple of simple passes down the right, a cross that evaded Troy Bourne, and the simplest of finishes for Manny Duku to notch up his 18th goal of the season. The Dabbers have now conceded the opening goal of games in the 8th, 1st, and 5th minutes in the last 3.
It was even more of a shame this time as Nantwich has started well and continued to after that goal. Ryan Brown was forced into a save at the end of an attack that Tom Pratt was heavily involved in.
Then, Kai Evans saw a shot deflected into the side netting after a cross could easily have looped over Brown and into the top corner.
Pratt tried to steer a header towards goal but it also took a nick for a Dabbers corner.
Nathan Sandison tried to catch out Brown with a low shot from what would usually be a crossing free kick position; he hit it well and Brown did well to deal with it as the ball bounced right in front of him.
As Nantwich continued to build momentum they were dealt another hammer blow as Hednesford scored their second. A 50/50 in the middle left Bourne on the floor briefly, the space that that left was run into with the ball by Dominic McHale who let fly with a great strike past Ben Garratt and into the far corner. That was his 16th goal of the season and a fine one at that. 6 of the last 9 goals that Nantwich have conceded have now come in the first 25 minutes of games.
The Dabbers had the chance to pull one back in very similar circumstances to how Hednesford took the lead but couldn’t get on the end of a missed cross.
Sion Spence, who scored in the reverse fixture, almost scored in this one too with a snapshot that was acrobatically pushed over the bar by Garratt. Hednesford had only had 3 shots in the first half and very nearly scored with all of them.
As we got closer to half time it briefly became the Paddy Kennedy show. He had 3 headers in 2 minutes, one gently looping that was pushed over the bar by Brown, one more powerful that was blocked and the third the best opportunity as he headed directly onto the roof of the net.
Another chance came right on the stroke of half time. Evans broke into the Hednesford box and his strike could not be held by Brown, Sandison could then only hit it at the Hednesford keeper.
Evans again was at the centre of things with a curling shot that once more was helped behind via a deflection, whether it would have gone in without that was hard to tell.
The first 15 minutes of the second half was Nantwich’s best spell of the match, the Pitmen were penned in for long periods. Some of the momentum was lost when Pratt headed straight at Brown.
But the big chance fell to Sandison just before the hour. Played in behind, he didn’t catch his low shot and Brown pushed it away. It might have been a different game had that gone in but it wasn’t to be.
Duku poked over the bar as Hednesford tried to re-assert themselves. A Duku hadn’t caused this much damage since Count Dooku cut Anakin Skywalker’s hand off.
A penalty shout was waved away by the referee as Sandison went down in the box.
Things had started to slow down in the game, not helped by a frustrating modern tactic adopted by the home side. Whenever Hednesford players went down injured, some more innocuous than others, the home physio was spring-heeled to quickly enter the pitch, ensuring a stoppage so the home manager could bring across his players to speak to them as well as running the clock down.
The home side were good value for the win but there was much to be proud of from the Dabbers performance. However, one final frustration came in stoppage time. Troy Bourne picked up a second yellow card to be sent off for the second year running in this exact fixture. It was also by the exact same referee this time as well. The second yellow was all his doing, the assistant who was much closer to the alleged shove did not wave his flag and it left a bitter taste in the mouth that Bourne will miss the Kidsgrove game for something so minor.
Teams
Hednesford Town: Ryan Brown, Jamie Morgan, Joel Taylor, Joe Doyle-Charles, Oliver Harrison, Elliot Johnson (C), Sion Spence (Matthew Barnes-Homer, 69), Simeon Maye (Omar Holness, 82), Manny Duku (Jacob Gwilt, 60), Dominic McHale (Daniel Sparkes, 45), Jack Bearne
Sub not used: Kory Roberts
Goals: Duku (5), McHale (24)
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, James Melhado, Kelvin Mellor, Daz Thornton, Troy Bourne (C), Paddy Kennedy, Nathan Sandison (Kofi Moore, 70), Matty Tweedley (Joe Robbins, 75), Byron Harrison, Tom Pratt (Lewis Bailey, 90+1), Kai Evans
Subs not used: Eric Merner, Jon Moran
Red card: Bourne (90+2)
Attendance: 1,219