By Liam Price, photos by Jonathan White
Nantwich Town ended the 2025/26 season with a 2-0 victory away at already-relegated Wythenshawe Town.
The Dabbers took the lead in the 13th minute when a cross from the left from Perry Bircumshaw was headed in by top scorer Alex Panter. A towering header from Panter for his 20th league goal of the season and 26th in all competitions.
He finishes tied 3rd in the NPL West Golden Boot and with 26 has recorded the most goals in a single season by a Nantwich player since Aaron Burns in 2013/14. And all this in his first full season at Step 4.
The biggest worry defensively came when a Kobe McWilliams header that looked goalbound was hooked off the line brilliantly by Kelvin Mellor.
Nantwich had a few chances to extend the lead before Fenton Green was able to make it 2-0 just past the hour mark. A smart Dabbers move that involved Byron Moore, Panter and Byron Harrison, the latter put it on a plate for Green to score first time past Greg Hall for his 4th goal of the season.
The assist from Harrison meant he joined Panter in reaching double figures in goals and assists in 25/26; he shows no signs of slowing down, in fact at 38 he is one of only 3 Dabbers players to have appeared in all 53 competitive games this season alongside Panter and Ben Garratt. May he never retire.
That second goal meant that for a large period of the second half the Dabbers were up to 8th in the table, ahead of Chasetown on goals scored.
But a stoppage time winner for Witton in their game against Sporting Khalsa meant they pushed Nantwich down to 9th and Luke Goddards’s side will therefore, pending confirmation, start the FA Cup in the Extra Preliminary Round in the first weekend of August and before the league season starts.
Ups and Downs
The heady days of August brought 3 wins on the bounce to start the season strongly for Jon Moran’s side. But setbacks were never far away, losing away to Sporting Khalsa who ended up going down and Stafford who were battling relegation until the last couple of weeks.
A decent FA Cup run, featuring the iconic late winner for Moore in the rain against Avro and Harrison’s record breaking quick goal, ended with what was a great day out for Nantwich supporters at Macclesfield, if not a great result. The FA Trophy was less fun, the Silsden defeat a bad one.
The home form remained strong; no defeats in any competition in the first 9 at the Swansway with Clitheroe and Chasetown also among those who were comfortably beaten. Struggles on the road remained though, none more so than a dire 3-0 loss at Newcastle Town at the end of October which really felt like a turning point.
After that the home results also started to stutter. In mitigation the fixtures were very tough; Lower Breck started the season like a train and demolished the Dabbers 4-1, then Bury won by the same scoreline in front of Nantwich’s biggest home league crowd for 14 years.
Vauxhall were free scoring all season and put 5 past Nantwich at home, but on reflection the worst of this run was the 3-1 loss to Wythenshawe Town from a goal and a man up. Mellor’s injury that came early in this period shouldn’t be forgotten given his influence on the team.
At this level, it does feel that as many games are settled by the desire and mentality of teams on the day than by any act of tactical or player genius, and too often at the end of 2025 Nantwich weren’t turning up. Green shoots of recovery in a home win against Bootle were quickly extinguished on Boxing Day with another 4-1 defeat, this time at Witton.
That run of 9 defeats in 14 games from Newcastle to Witton proved to be the end of the road for Moran as Nantwich manager, who made the difficult decision to step away from the role. Nantwich through and through, despite the form the decision still came as a shock but with universal goodwill for his contribution to the club.
He signed off in style, thrashing Stafford 6-1 on New Year’s Day in a thrilling performance. Marc Feighery took temporary charge, extending that winning run to 4 with great wins away at Kidsgrove and Congleton in there.
Late in January, Goddard was announced as the new Dabbers manager after an excellent track record elsewhere in Cheshire with Whitchurch and Northwich Victoria. He got his first win away at Chasetown, after a midweek Cheshire Senior Cup defeat to Crewe Alex in what was Nantwich’s first semi-final in that competition for 7 years.
There were more decent results; another 6-1 win, this time over Sporting Khalsa, and a battling 2-2 draw away at Lower Breck with 10 men. When it clicked, the Dabbers were a very good team to watch.
However, realistic hopes of the play-offs had long since gone and the inconsistency returned again at the end of the season. From nowhere Witton picked apart a lifeless Dabbers side 4-0, but that was then followed up by a spirited performance, in defeat, at a 4,000 strong Gigg Lane crowd at Bury.
Shakers fans hoping for Nantwich to do them a favour in the title race the following weekend against Avro would be left disappointed as the Ro impressively cruised to a 4-0 win at the Swansway.
But that was just the last in a clear pattern of poor results against the better teams in the NPL West. 10 league games against the top 5 ended with no wins and 7 defeats, as well as 22 goals conceded. You can’t finish in the play-offs if you can’t beat the teams in there.
To look at the 3 seasons the Dabbers have spent in the NPL West post-relegation is to see a picture of consistency: 10th, 8th and 9th place finishes. That’s despite all 3 of those seasons ending under different managers and the usual turnover of players at this level.
Begrudgingly that may have to lead to an acceptance that upper mid-table of Step 4 has become the ceiling of the Dabbers. The gap to the playoffs has also grown, from 6 to 11 and now to 14 points this time round. So the question now becomes how that ceiling gets raised, and the work will already be well underway on solving that conundrum.
As well as Panter and Harrison, there have been other standouts in green this campaign. Aidy Roxburgh had a tough job stepping into the boots of James Melhado at right back. But he did that with aplomb, double figures of assists from defence and quickly becoming one of the first names on the team sheet.
On their day, Ben Hockenhull and Paddy Kennedy were among the best centre back pairings in the division, dominant in the air but equally capable with the ball at their feet. Joe Robbins has probably had his best season in a Nantwich shirt in midfield.
And Joel Connolly, finally, got a season without any injury setbacks and shone because of it, only missing one game all campaign which was a suspension for 5 yellow cards.
Taking the captain’s armband in the extended absence of Mellor, he ran the show from middle of the park on numerous occasions with his tireless running and superb ball distribution. He even got on the scoresheet for the first time since joining the club with a sweeping strike away at Kidsgrove, then going one better than that with a goal direct from a corner against Atherton and a smart dinked finish against Khalsa.
As always, there’ll now be some players that go, some that stay and some that will be brought in. Can Goddard and co. get the mix right to take on what looks to be a more open league in 2026/27? Only 3 months left to find out.
Teams
Wythenshawe Town: Greg Hall, Dan-Silver Ishola (Kris Smith, 68), Domaine Rouse (Kaylan Wilkinson, 81), Ezeikel Eme (Thomas Fagan, 81), Dan Dolling, Jack Taylor, Saj Elhassan, Astley Mulholland, Wealth Dasilva (Deus Norford, 68), Kobe McWilliams, Dylan Woods (C) (Nathan Whalley, 68)
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, Aidy Roxburgh, Perry Bircumshaw, Joe Piggott, Kelvin Mellor (Adam Rooney, 82), Paddy Kennedy, Alex Panter (Callum Saunders, 71), Joel Connolly (C) (Joe Robbins, 67), Byron Harrison, Fenton Green (Paddy Jarrett, 74), Byron Moore (Joe Collins, 74)
Goals: Panter (13), Green (62)
Attendance: 240