Photos by Craig McNair and Ian Kelsey
South Shields moved to the cusp of the Northern Premier League title after a 3-2 win over Nantwich Town at the 1st Cloud Arena.
Paul Carden talked after of how the Dabbers were below the standards set in recent games, saying “when we put it (pressure) on them we caused them problems but we didn’t do it enough.”
Shields nearly took the lead inside 2 minutes, a Robert Briggs shot forcing Tom Booth into early action to parry it away.
Jon Moran, in for the injured Dylan Thompson in the Dabbers’ only change from Marine, was then caught by a flailing arm with no proper punishment for the offender. Amazingly, the referee who missed this was the same referee who missed a red card elbow that left Moran with a concussion in January’s game away at Guiseley.
Briggs passed up another chance after only 8 minutes. Lewis Alessandra won a 50/50 in the box and squared to Briggs who had hung back cleverly but managed to curl it wide with the goal gaping.
The Dabbers’ tough start continued as Booth did well to deny Alessandra 1v1 with a good save with his legs.
Briggs finally got his goal, which could quite easily have capped a hat trick, just before the half hour. A fine cross in from the right was met with a glancing header that Booth could only stand and watch fly into the far corner.
A brilliant interception by Steven Hewitt stopped Shields from more than likely doubling their lead, great tracking back from the midfielder.
Nantwich’s best moment came 3 minutes before the break. The ever-willing Connor Evans chased a lost cause and got to the ball before Shields keeper Myles Boney, forced wide he could only cross to Byron Harrison who was waiting but had the ball nicked off his foot. Boney was left flat on his face in a brief worrying moment, but luckily after some head injury checks he was fine to continue.
The break gave Carden and his players a chance to reset and try to wrestle some control of proceedings back in their favour. Unfortunately any plans they put in place were dealt a heavy blow just 4 minutes into the second half.
The in-form Dylan Mottley-Henry was on hand to poke in the ball just ahead of Booth after a corner was not dealt with by the Dabbers backline.
After that, the pace of the game slowed down somewhat, which was only benefitting the home side. And they struck once more on 70 minutes.
In what was a patient, well-worked team move worthy of champions-elect, the ball was played from left to right, and an overload led by Jordan Hunter created the space for him to cross low into the box, where Booth got down to push away but only into the path of Alessandra who slammed in the rebound. All 3 of their front 3 had now scored.
Just 3 minutes later, Nantwich earned themselves a route onto the scoresheet. Troy Bourne, up for a set-piece, smartly cut inside and was tripped in the box. Byron Harrison calmly slotted it away to reduce the deficit.
It was then that just a few jitters started to appear in Shields’ play and Nantwich started to push on a bit more with little to lose. A freakish moment nearly made the game very interesting. Joel Connelly, on as a sub for the booked Aidy Roxburgh, sent in a cross that caught the wind and caught out Boney as it bounced off the crossbar and away.
On 87 minutes, in a moment reminiscent of Harrison’s contribution to the winner at Gainsborough, Bourne rose highest and won a header in front of the keeper, only a fine clearance off the line from Tom Broadbent stopped it being 3-2. Sean Cooke fired in a shot on the second phase but Boney was back to save it.
In the 4th minute of stoppage time, Nantwich did get what was a deserved second goal. And it was another from the spot, this time via a trip on Cooke.
Once more, Harrison stepped up and put it away comfortably, in what was literally the final kick of the game. So defeat away at the best side in the league but as Carden rightly pointed out afterwards, no time to dwell on it with Stafford at home 46 hours after full time in this one.
Teams
South Shields: Myles Boney, Jordan Hunter, Blair Adams (Josh Doherty, 83), Gary Liddle, Tom Broadbent, Martin Smith, Mackenzie Heaney, Ade Shokubi (Conor Newton, 23), Lewis Alessandra (Darius Osei, 74), Robert Briggs, Dylan Mottley-Henry
Subs not used: Jordy Mongoy, Dillon Morse
Goals: Briggs (28), Mottley-Henry (49), Alessandra (70)
Nantwich Town: Tom Booth, Aidy Roxburgh (Joel Connelly, 71), Perry Bircumshaw, Nathan Okome, Jon Moran, Troy Bourne, Steven Hewitt, Caspar Hughes (Tom Scully, 27), Connor Evans (Dan Cockerline, 65), Sean Cooke, Byron Harrison
Subs not used: Ivan Urvantev, Liam Humbles
Goals: Harrison (73, pen; 90+5, pen)
Attendance: 2,764