Photos by Jonathan White
Widnes eased to a 2-0 win over Nantwich Town at the Swansway Stadium on Tuesday night.
An Ali brother nearly scored after 2 minutes for the second game in a row, as the first corner of the game hit Mo Ali and bounced wide.
Just 7 minutes in, though, it was the visitors who struck first. Scott Butler made a rare error at the back in misjudging a header, and in trying to make up for it dived in rashly on his man in the box and brought him down for a surefire penalty.
Jack McGowan was the taker, and what a penalty it was as he tucked it right into the postage stamp from a relatively short run up. The old cliche of 2 keepers not being able to save that certainly applied there.
All of the Dabbers’ best moments came from crosses or set pieces. One from Paddy Kay was excellently cleared, before Widnes went up the other end and had an effort on target that was easily caught by Danny Roberts.
Nathan Okome found himself still up top after a corner and tried to deliver the ball back into the danger area, it took a severe deflection and former Dabbers keeper Cameron Terry did well to adjust and claw it away as it may have been sneaking in.
Mo Ali was making a nuisance of himself again from a set piece, again he didn’t quite get a clean contact on his effort but it was heading in before being hooked away.
A couple of other half moments came and went as an obstinate Widnes team went into the break ahead.
History repeated itself in shambolic fashion at the start of the second half as Widnes got their second goal. This time it was both Butler and Okome who made mistakes, leading to James Steele being able to get a shot away that went in off the post. All chances for Nantwich to get their performance going had evaporated before they even had a chance to start.
The Dabbers now found themselves 2 down to a team that had conceded the joint fewest goals of any team in the league and were not looking likely to score, at least from open play, all evening.
Widnes had chances to extend the lead. Ste Milne, who was dominating the Nantwich midfield single-handedly and running through almost at will, curled wide to elicit an angry response from Roberts at his defence. He shot wide from a very narrow angle a few minutes after this.
Paddy Kay shot straight at Terry, before McGowan had 2 efforts in quick succession, the second held by Roberts. It’s worth pointing out that the Dabbers now haven’t kept a clean sheet in the league since 1874 Northwich away at the end of August. While the goals aren’t being conceded in vast quantities, they are being conceded in nearly every game.
Joe Piggott had a tough debut, but had a couple of better moments as the game wore on. One burst down the right channel saw him drive across goal and Terry could only palm it away but not into the path of the close Akiel Raffie.
Raffie was one of the subs along with Byron Harrison that made a positive difference when they came on. A corner forced by them was seemingly mishit low across goal and bounced off a Widnes defender before a grateful Terry fell on it. If one of those scruffy moments could have worked its way in for the Dabbers, especially those in the first half, it might have been a different game.
Terry made a pretty comfortable double save, before Butler stopped Milne on another of his powerful direct runs. It’s those features, power and directness, that have caused issues for the Dabbers all season.
Piggott had the last Dabbers effort blocked as a Widnes team who looked hungrier from the first minute took a deserved 3 points.
The next Nantwich home game is against Avro on 23rd December at 3pm.
Teams
Nantwich Town: Danny Roberts, Amir Tavakoli, Tyler Hill, Mohamud Ali, Nathan Okome (Akiel Raffie, 55), Scott Butler, Paddy Kay, Ahmed Ali, Jor Piggott, Jake Kirby (Callum Saunders, 78), Connor Rankin (Byron Harrison, 60)
Subs not used: Bircumshaw, Moloney
Widnes FC: Cameron Terry, Louis Isherwood, Matty Rain, Jack Byrne, Will Bell, Brendan O’Brien, Steven Irwin, Ste Milne, Jack McGowan (Will Jones, 85), Sean Miller (Niall Battersby, 76), James Steele (Kris Holt, 76)
Subs not used: Sam Bhatti, Sam Grimshaw
Goals: McGowan (8, pen), Steele (47)
Attendance: 193