By Liam Price, photos by John Middleton Photography
Nantwich Town were defeated for the first time in the league in 2024 as 2nd place Prescot Cables won 1-0 at the Joseph Russell Stadium.
The Dabbers were missing Frazer Cookson, Troy Bourne and Joel Connolly through suspension, but Nathan Okome was back from his own ban. Cesaire Lingouba was on the bench and made his debut late on.
As Paul Carden put it after the game, Prescot ‘came out of the traps really strong in the first 15 minutes.’ That was certainly true, they could have been 3-0 up by that point.
Kyle Lambor broke through inside the first 2 minutes and did everything right, dinking the ball over the onrushing Scott Moloney but just seeing it drop past the post.
Still inside the first 10 minutes, they had another double chance to open the scoring. Francis Smith hit the crossbar with a good strike that had Moloney beaten, but the keeper was alert to save the rebound from Cables top scorer John Murphy.
Murphy forced another save from Moloney, then Tom Owens dragged an effort wide. All of this in the first 20 minutes of the game.
After that, Nantwich did a good job of steadying the ship and getting a foothold in the game. The Dabbers of before Christmas may well have folded under that pressure but this is a team that has a different feel after a good run at the start of the year.
Courtney Meppen-Walters, in his first game since joining the club permanently and wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of Bourne and Connolly, planted a header just wide from a clever free kick delivery to give the travelling fans something to get behind.
Akiel Raffie then played in a good cross that was cleared out to Paddy Kay who didn’t catch his shot cleanly and it was pulled wide. But this was much better stuff from the visitors.
Murphy was always a threat, though, sliding another effort past the post as the game started to go a bit end-to-end.
A beneficiary of this was Kai Evans. Starting on the day of his 20th birthday, Evans found himself 1v1 with former Dabber Matty Devine, as he took it past him it looked like he’d taken too many touches but let fly with a fierce drive that smacked the inside of the post and bounced away, centimetres away from the perfect birthday present.
Smith volleyed over the bar and Owens’ pullback was crucially cut out by Meppen-Walters as Prescot looked to reassert themselves.
Meppen-Walters then tried, as he did against Witton, a shot from range that forced the first real save from Mitchell Allen in the Prescot goal. One of those will fly in one day and it will be a spectacular moment.
The home side struck with a hammer blow as we ticked into stoppage time at the end of the first half. A throw in on the left was taken and Okome’s unfortunate slip gave an opening to Murphy that he wasn’t going to pass up, it was a tidy finish from a narrowing angle that just clipped the post as it went in. 18 in all competitions for Murphy who looked too good for this level all day.
Carden afterwards disputed the award of the throw to Prescot, saying the assistant did give it Nantwich’s way only for the referee to overrule him.
Another save from Moloney just before the whistle stopped the salt being rubbed into the wound for Nantwich.
An action packed first half was replaced by a calmer and tighter second. As Carden observed afterwards, Prescot changed their shape and employed ‘good game management’ to maintain their lead and not give as many chances away.
Meppen-Walters curled a free kick over the wall but didn’t stretch Allen who saved relatively easily. Things then quietened down for a spell, the dangerous Sambor took on Sean Lawton and his strong run ended up with a cross bouncing into the hands of Moloney.
A rare mistake at the back then gave Raffie half an opening but his shot in the box was blocked out to Joe Piggott, on his last appearance for the Dabbers before he goes travelling around Australia, whose shot was also blocked.
Moloney then had to be at his very best in tipping a Murphy snapshot onto the bar. Scott has been quietly in very good form since his return from injury and showed it again in this game.
A header straight at Moloney and a shot that came to nothing from a Dabbers corner, it looked like the game was fizzling out, but there was one more big chance to come for Nantwich.
Callum Saunders was off the bench and had a huge opportunity as the ball broke to him in the box, 1 or 2 touches too many as he looked to set himself allowed Allen to come off his line and make a vital save.
A final opening came as a searching ball was diving headed behind by a Prescot defender, it was probably a bit close for comfort for Allen but it saw out another win for Prescot, to take them to 11 unbeaten at home and keep them in touch with league leaders Leek Town, who the Dabbers now face next Saturday at the Swansway Stadium.
Teams
Prescot Cables: Mitchell Allen, Alex McNally, Matty Devine, Nathan Koehler, Liam Hollett, Francis Smith, Jack Goodwin, James Foley, John Murphy, Tom Owens (Tony Donaldson, 65), Kyle Sambor (James Devine, 87)
Subs not used: John McGrath, Sam O’Halleron, Ryan McMahon
Goal: Murphy (45+1)
Nantwich Town: Scott Moloney, Jacob Edwards (Amir Tavakoli, 74), Sean Lawton, Nathan Okome, Courtney Meppen-Walters, Perry Bircumshaw, Paddy Kay, Joe Piggott, Byron Harrison, Akiel Raffie (Cesaire Lingouba, 74), Kai Evans (Callum Saunders, 65)
Sub not used: Eric Merner
Attendance: 786