By Liam Price, photos by Jonathan White
Nantwich Town secured their first home win of the season with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Congleton Town at the Swansway Stadium.
Under the stewardship of Interim Manager Jon Moran at home for the first time, he brought Courtney Meppen-Walters and Kai Evans back into the starting line up after both recovered from injuries.
It was an electric start as the Dabbers took the lead after 3 minutes. James Melhado exchanged passes with Byron Harrison before running down the right side of the box towards the byline and hitting an effort low at the near post that deceived David Parton and went in for Melhado’s first goal for the club.
It should have been 2-0 after 6 minutes. Evans got in behind and saw his shot palmed away to Callum Saunders who headed the rebound towards goal but a deflection carried it agonisingly wide of the post with the goal gaping.
Max McCarthy was undoubtedly Congleton’s danger man coming into this game, with 9 goals to his name already. He fired over the Bears’ first shot from the corner of the box.
They were starting to settle into the game, which made it even more important that the Dabbers doubled the lead just after the half hour. And it was a significant scorer as Kai Evans netted his first of the season with a typically brilliant curling strike. After 18 goals last season it will surely be a relief to get off the mark this time after niggling injuries affected his first few weeks.
The joy was tempered somewhat a few minutes later as Meppen-Walters was forced off with injury after missing the Sporting Khalsa game as a precaution. But it was a good moment for his replacement Cesaire Lingouba who was back for the Dabbers for the first time since February after an injury lay-off of his own.
Congleton couldn’t squeeze in a goal just before half time after Ben Garratt dropped a cross and they tried to force it in but the move ended with an overhead kick clearance at the back.
They came very close again early in the second half as a corner caused chaos and dribbled wide in the end. Congleton clearly value set pieces and executed their heavy-handed routines with varying levels of success throughout the game.
The Bears were biting back though, and pulled a goal back with a Peter Williams penalty that was neatly converted past Garratt who went the right way. The foul that led to the penalty looked in live play to be soft and the referee didn’t look totally sure when pointing to the spot.
Harrison headed over from an Evans cross as Nantwich tried to compose themselves.
But the Congleton tails were up and they subsequently equalised 5 minutes after their first. Daniel Needham was on hand to tap in from close range following a move down the left. Needham also scored against the Dabbers the last time the two sides met in the FA Cup 2 years ago.
If Dabbers fans were feeling a bit of deja vu, that’s because they had relinquished a 2-goal lead in consecutive home games after doing the same against Widnes 2 and half weeks prior.
The worry now was the score would be turned completely on its head, and a familiar fear was taking grip of the Nantwich players that Moran commented on and Paul Carden also had in recent weeks, when a game starts to turn against the Dabbers their instinct seems to be to retreat, and that is something that will have to be worked on.
It didn’t affect all the players though. Moran went bold after Williams miscued an effort for Congleton, sending on Gio Loureiro and Nathan Sandison, and their fresh legs and dynamism made a real difference going into the last 15 minutes.
Never more so than in the 77th minute, when Loureiro picked up the ball on the left side and cut in, spotting a gap and letting fly with a superb strike that curled into the top corner. His second of the season and he probably won’t hit a better one all season either.
Congleton looked to reapply the pressure and pull themselves back from behind again, and created multiple chances to do so.
The most glaring of all came when sub Andrew Buah seemingly put it on a plate for Needham to get his second but he got right under it and blazed it over the bar.
Another shot was dragged wide as Nantwich looked to see the game out and threw one or two counterpunches with Matty Tweedley and Sandison not really threatening the goal.
The final real chance saw Garratt smartly off his line to block as Needham looked to work an opening.
That piece of goalkeeping was enough to secure a huge win for the Dabbers in front of a bumper crowd of over 700 (the highest league attendance for almost a year) and the first ever managerial win for Moran.
The next home game for Nantwich Town is against Trafford FC on Saturday 12th October at 3pm.
Teams
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, James Melhado, Perry Bircumshaw, Kelvin Mellor, Courtney Meppen-Walters (C) (Cesaire Lingouba, 35), Paddy Kennedy, Callum Saunders (Nathan Sandison, 71), Matty Tweedley, Byron Harrison, Tom Pratt (Gio Loureiro, 71), Kai Evans (Cole Lonsdale, 82)
Sub not used: Eric Merner
Goals: Melhado (3), Evans (31), G.Loureiro (77)
Congleton Town: David Parton, Joshua Hall (Thomas Hampton, 45), Owen Morris, Peter Williams, Richard Duffy, Darren Chadwick (C), Kieran Garner-Knapper (Andrew Buah, 62), William Arnold (George Sankey, 90+2), Max McCarthy, Ethan Hartshorn, Daniel Needham
Subs not used: Lewis Porter, Josh Ryder
Goals: Williams (61, pen), Needham (66)
Attendance: 724