By Liam Price, photos by Jonathan White and Peter Robinson
Nantwich returned to league action with a comfortable 2-0 win over Congleton Town at the Swansway Stadium.
There were starts for Alex Panter, Josh Williams and Paddy Jarrett in the three changes from last week’s FA Cup defeat at Macclesfield.
The biggest factor in the first third of the game was not any player but the wind. Storm Amy was blowing from the Malbank End of the ground and the Dabbers were playing right into it, and the sun, in the first half.
A long kick from the hands of Congleton keeper Dave Parton, making his 200th appearance for the Bears, took off and Ben Garratt had to watch it carefully over his bar. It would not have been surprising to see a goalkeeper score somewhere in Britain with the weather as it was on Saturday.
It took until the 34th minute for the first real action, and it happened to be the opening goal for the Dabbers. A free kick curled in by Joel Connolly was held up in the wind, allowing Fenton Green to nab in and head past the onrushing Parton and in for his first league goal for the club.
Parton had made a loud shout to come for the ball and had the wind not been there he probably would have punched it clear, but as it turned out he was nowhere near it.
Dan Needham tried to respond with a set piece of his own which Garratt had to palm over the bar. The referee and assistant inexplicably gave a goal kick, much to the away supporters’ understandable frustration.
The Dabbers doubled the lead right on the stroke of half time. Aidy Roxburgh won a 50/50 in the middle and slid in Panter. Panter managed to take it round Parton and to the goal line where he pulled it back for Jarrett to grab his first goal for Nantwich. The ball was a little behind him and he did well to adjust for the finish. There was also a hint of offside against Panter but he still had a lot of work to do to set up the goal and did it brilliantly.
In the second half, Parton punched away a cross with the ball falling to Connolly who went down under pressure in the box, the referee played on.
Kieran Garner-Knapper missed the target with a snapshot but in truth Congleton provided very little attacking threat in the game, a real surprise given it’s most of the same team which was narrowly beaten by Hednesford in last season’s play-off final. It was notable, though, that they were only able to name 4 subs.
Byron Moore let fly from about 25 yards with a swerving effort that Parton had to dive to his left to parry.
In the 66th minute, a smart Nantwich move ended with Perry Bircumshaw going down in the box and getting booked for simulation. There was clear contact on the right leg so what can be said with certainty is it was not a dive.
3 minutes after coming on, debutant Harry Bower almost marked it with a goal. Again it was a goalkeeper kick, this time from Garratt, causing the problems in the wind, the defence misjudging the bounce and Bower stealing in and hitting the woodwork with a first time shot.
Roxburgh and Byron Harrison combined well down the right and Callum Saunders was unlucky to not make contact as he slid in in the box.
Kelvin Mellor made an excellent tackle to deny George Sankey in the Dabbers box, before Bower brought another save from Parton at the other end.
Saunders fired over with a free kick and couldn’t get the right contact in the box after a scramble in stoppage time, but Nantwich were never in danger of leaving the game with anything but a win after going ahead, to start a very busy month in the best way possible.
Teams
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, Aidy Roxburgh, Perry Bircumshaw (Junior Brown, 82), Kelvin Mellor (C), Ben Hockenhull, Paddy Jarrett (Harry Bower, 74), Fenton Green (Joe Robbins, 80), Alex Panter (Byron Harrison, 65), Joel Connolly, Byron Moore (Callum Saunders, 65)
Goals: Green (34), Jarrett (45+1)
Congleton Town: Dave Parton, Owen Beamon, Matthew Liptrott, Peter Williams (C), Shaun Brisley, Jack Bates, Ebou Badjie (Max McCarthy, 46), Tom Allen, Tom Hampton (Theo Stair, 61), Kieran Garner-Knapper (George Sankey, 71), Dan Needham
Sub not used: Chadwick
Attendance: 558