Photos by Jonathan White
Newcastle Town defeated Nantwich Town by a goal to nil at a wet Swansway Stadium.
Tyler Hill made his first start after joining the club on a work experience loan from Blackpool, with Connor Rankin coming on for his Dabbers debut later in the game after signing from Lower Breck.
Troy Bourne thought he’d given the Dabbers the lead just 2 minutes in, only for the flag to go up for offside. Replays showed that Ahmed Ali was onside when the initial ball was played forward by Stevie Hewitt, and Bourne himself was on when Ali chested it down.
Kai Evans was almost through on goal after a good ball through from Sean Cooke before a fine challenge from Joshua Jordan stopped him just as he was preparing to get a shot away.
Byron Harrison headed wide, before Kyle Stubbs miscued an effort wide of Nantwich’s post.
Sean Cooke tried to catch out Joseph Slinn from range with a free kick but just curled it wide. It was clever from Cooke and Hewitt as it had all looked as if Hewitt was lining up to whip it into the box before Cooke took aim.
Danny Roberts had to make one decent save from Patryk Mazurkiewicz before the break, and right before that whistle Evans tried to lob Slinn twice in quick succession but he was up to the task of saving them both.
The second half was much of the same in what was anything but a classic. Slinn made a mess of a free kick but no one in Nantwich was following in to pounce on the mistake.
The away side started to get joy from crosses out wide, one smartly headed clear by Scott Butler in what could have been an own goal if he got it wrong.
Newcastle took the lead on 57 minutes as a low cross bore fruit this time, it was palmed away by Roberts but bounced in off Mazurkiewicz who knew little about it but he and everyone in blue didn’t care.
Harrison flicked a header wide as the clock ticked down and Nantwich struggled to respond and increasingly looked devoid of ideas and confidence.
There was a shout for a Nantwich penalty as Evans went down under close contact from a Newcastle defender with 5 minutes to go, the referee wasn’t interested.
The Dabbers came closest to equalising when a Hewitt free kick was saved by Slinn with Harrison sniffing around for a tap-in.
The next home game is against Bootle on Tuesday night.
Teams
Nantwich Town: Danny Roberts, Troy Bourne, Tyler Hill, Ahmed Ali (Connor Heath, 78), Nathan Okome, Scott Butler, Kai Evans, Steven Hewitt, Byron Harrison, Sean Cooke (Paddy Kay, 58), Jake Kirby-Reid (Connor Rankin, 58)
Subs not used: Mo Ali, Cameron Rooney
Newcastle Town: Joseph Slinn, Jack Derbyshire, Oliver Ritchie, Tommy van der Laan, Joshua Jordan, Kyle Stubbs, Kingsley Adu Gyamfi (Joseph Berks, 85), Isaac Graham, Patryk Mazurkiewicz (Phoenix Lee, 72), Jack van der Laan, Callum Speed (Daniel Edwards, 81)
Sub not used: Lewis Holdham
Goal: Mazurkiewicz (57)
Attendance: 383