New Nantwich Town boss Paul Carden said his side deserved at least a point after they lost 1-0 at home to second place Hyde United, writes Jack Beresford.
Carden, who joined the club on Monday, had two training sessions to prepare for the game.
And he said he was pleased with what he has seen so far, adding: “I couldn’t have asked for anymore of them, how they have applied themselves was first class.”
Nantwich were looking to pick up their first win since February 4 and they had the first effort of the game as Ivan Urvantev took aim from distance, but his effort was blocked by the Hyde United defence
After this early chance, the game turned scrappy with the referee brandishing three yellow cards in the first 20 minutes.
The next effort came on the half hour mark as Tom Scully volleyed over the bar following good hold up play from Dan Cockerline.
With five minutes until the break, the game finally sparked into life.
After showing good feet in the box, Urvantev was tripped in the box and the referee showed no hesitation but to point to the penalty spot.
Dabbers top scorer Cockerline stepped up but his penalty was saved by Dan Atherton who guessed right and touched it behind for a corner.
From the following corner, the Dabbers had the ball in the back of the net.
However, it was immediately disallowed following an alleged foul on Hyde goalkeeper Atherton.
After the break, the game again took a while to get going.
Urvantev fired over on the hour mark after being tee’d up by Cockerline.
The crucial moment came in the 69th when Scully conceded a free kick right on the edge of the box.
Edy Maieco stepped up for the Tigers and curled a freekick around the wall and into the top corner, leaving Tom Booth with no chance.
It was a moment of brilliance from a winger who was a threat all game down the right.
The Dabbers had 20 minutes to get back into it and earn themselves some valuable points.
Carden made a few chances to try and add more attacking threat.
Crewe Alex loanee Connor Evans came on and made an instant impact and almost levelled the scores when he cut inside from the right but dragged his effort agonisingly wide of the near post.
Five minutes later, he had another great opportunity when he linked up well with Cockerline before finding himself in behind but this time his effort went just wide of the far post.
The Dabbers threw everything at their visitors and came close again in the 89th minute but Troy Bourne couldn’t get any power behind his header and it was comfortable for Atherton.
Nantwich huffed and puffed but couldn’t find a goal.
However, Carden was pleased with his side’s efforts.
He said afterwards: “We didn’t have a bad player, if you’ve got 7/8 players performing the day, you usually get something out the game and today it was the freekick that made the difference.
“We’ve gone toe-to-toe with them and we weren’t out-run, we weren’t outplayed, we weren’t outfought. So that’s the standard from now for the last eight games.”
Next up for Nantwich Town is another crucial home fixture against Lancaster City on Saturday March 11.
(Images by Jonathan White)
Instant impact from the new manager, the team looked far more engaged and up for the fight, Nantwhich could and should have won, with both a penalty Miss and and perfectly good goal not given for a foul on the goal keeper (who went down like he had been shot with no real contact).
Eight games left to save are place in this league, we can and should do it,but I think we still need a big lad up front who can hold the ball up and lay it off the the other strikers would help us a lot,as scoring goals has been a problem all season.