Dabbers held to draw in North Yorkshire
Nantwich Town manager Ritchie Sutton described his sides result at fellow Strugglers Whitby Town as a “good point on the round” after they drew 1-1 at the Turnbull Express Stadium. “We knew it was always going to be difficult, even before the game the pitch was poor and it tore up even more as the game progressed. It was always going to be a case of who won the battle and overall a 1-1 draw was a fair result”
Nantwich Town began the game on the front foot and had the first opportunity when Adam Dawson found Jack Sherratt on the edge of the box but his effort was weak and easy for Shane Bland in the Whitby goal.
Moments later, The hosts had their first dangerous attack when Bradley Fewster broke into the Nantwich box before cutting back to Jacob Day who saw his low effort blocked excellently by Perry Bircumshaw who denied the hosts a certain goal.
In the 26th minute, The hosts came close again as Lewis Hawkins’ deflected strike looked to be bobbling into the bottom corner but Tom Booth did well to push it around the post.
The game lacked quality and the playing surface was proving really difficult to play football on so both sides were trying the aerial route to keep the ball off the floor. This nearly benefited The Dabbers on the stroke of half time as a cross from the right caused chaos in the Whitby Town box before it fell to Dan Cockerline who said his effort blocked and go out for a corner.
At half time, Both managers who have been asking their players for more composure and quality on the ball as they looked for that opening goal to set the game into light
Whatever Ritchie Sutton and his management team said at half time worked wonders as within two minutes of the restart The Dabbers took the lead.
Perry Bircumshaw drove down the left side before getting to the byline and crossing for James Caton who was able to stab home at the back post to put his side ahead and get his second Dabbers goal of his short career in South Cheshire.
When asked about his half time thoughts, Sutton said “With the players that we’ve got, I felt like we could deal with their threats. I felt that at half time they have given everything they had and if we can deal with that and we had a few more gears to go and that showed early doors in the season half”
In recent games, The Dabbers has been guilty of letting leads slip moments after going ahead and this game was no different as Whitby levelled the scoring just nine minutes after going behind.
Jacob Day’s header fell kindly into the path of Bradley Fewster who was in on goal, Tom Booth came rushing off his line to close the angle but Fewster took it around him and then cut back inside before blasting past the two Nantwich bodies on the line to put his side back on level terms.
“The lads need to learn the game more, when you go 1-0 up you need to settle yourselves again so you don’t get stretched and that’s what happened for their equaliser and I’m disappointed that the more experienced lads didn’t get the group together” said Sutton
Ten minutes after being pinned back, Byron Harrison came close to immediately putting his side back in front but his curled effort from the left side of the box was straight at Bland in the Whitby goal.
The last twenty minutes didn’t really have much goalmouth action, it was a cavern ending to the game with both sides playing cautiously as neither wanted to lose the game.
There was one final chance of the game as Dan Cockerline was played in behind by Curtis Morrison. As The Dabbers forward bared down on goal, Shane Bland came rushing off his line and did excellently well to save down low to keep his side in the game.
At full time, both teams would have settled for a point and it was probably a fair result in the grand scheme of things. Both sides had limited chances in a game that was played in tough conditions.
Overall, Ritchie Sutton was content with the point that his side picked up in North Yorkshire “When they got the equaliser naturally the lads were a bit down, but they’ve got to pick themselves up, and again, we did. We had the chances to win the game but we didn’t convert them and that’s been the story of our season so far. However, its a good point away from home in tough circumstances”
Next up for The Dabbers is a Cheshire Cup Quarter final against Crewe Alexandra on Wednesday 1st February at The Swansway Stadium