By Liam Price, photo by Ian Garnett
Nantwich Town and Mossley drew 1-1 at Seel Park after a goal for each team in the space of a couple of minutes.
Ollie Pope and Luke Enright came back into the side, as did Perry Bircumshaw after a few games out.
A largely uneventful first half carried over into the second, all except for a crazy 2-minute spell.
First, the Dabbers were awarded a penalty after a foul was spotted at a Nantwich corner.
Joe Piggott stepped up and scored his second goal of the season in the 74th minute to put the Dabbers ahead.
But in no time at all the Lillywhites had levelled the scores. Mason Fawns was the man to equalise, tucking away a great finish in the very next minute from the Nantwich goal. The old maxim of being most vulnerable just after scoring once again proving itself true in Mossley.
And 1-1 was how it finished, the third game in a row between the sides to finish in that scoreline. One thing to note late on was the return of Troy Bourne to the pitch after missing all of the season so far with injury to add to the options at the back.
A saving grace, for both sides, is that all the other NPL West teams towards the bottom that were in action on Saturday ended up losing, so in that regard it is a point gained.
While wins have been hard to come by, including last season that’s now 5 away games unbeaten for the Dabbers in all competitions. In fact, taking in Marc Feighery’s interim spell and Luke Goddard’s tenure so far, there’s only been 2 defeats in 14 games away from the Swansway. They know how to set up a side away from home.
Speaking afterwards, Luke Goddard said:
“Reflecting on yesterday’s game it was probably a fair result overall between two evenly matched sides at this stage of the season. Traditionally any points gained away at Mossley are good ones so we will take the positives.
With one win, three draws and one defeat in the last five outings it’s now about using everything we know and working hard internally to add those extras in personnel and tweaks to turn those draws into wins.
We’ve faced plenty of adversity early on, unable really to carry forward our initial work from the start of pre season, so it’s about adjusting with solutions short term which when aligned will give us a great opportunity to make September a month that springboards our season.”
The next game for the Dabbers is at Stafford Rangers on Tuesday night, a match which will certainly test that unbeaten away run.
Teams
Mossley AFC: Fin Madigan, Callum Jones, Kacper Mialkowski (Jack Marrow, 67), Sean Kgwakgwa, Mark Lees (C), Jack Grundy, Kyle Campbell, Bailey Marsden, Charlie Frost, Mason Fawns, Ben Kershaw (Dylan Mantle, 85)
Subs not used: Ollie McKay, Callum Stringer, Connor Marsh
Goal: Fawns (75′)
Nantwich Town: Liam Hall, Aidy Roxburgh, Perry Bircumshaw, Tom Graves, Harry Davis (C) (Troy Bourne, 85), Paddy Kennedy, Joe Collins (James Baillie, 90+1), Joe Piggott, Luke Enright (Callum Saunders, 65), Fenton Green (Ethan Hartshorn, 72), Ollie Pope
Sub not used: AJ Kandeke
Goal: Piggott (74′, pen)
Attendance: 420