Nantwich Town beat neighbours Chester in FA Trophy penalty drama

Nantwich Town made it through to the Third Round of the FA Trophy after beating Cheshire neighbours Chester in another penalty shoot out win.

The teams could not break the stalemate in 90 minutes with the game finishing 0-0 at the Swansway Stadium.

The Dabbers had the game’s first effort when a well worked corner from the left resulted in Stevie Hewitt stinging the palms of Will Stanway in the Chester goal.

From this attack, Chester broke as Christian Norton got in behind but his effort went the wrong side of the near post.

In the 10th minute Nantwich came close again when Hewitt’s deep freekick was met by Connor Rankin but his header was wide of far post.

The Dabbers had the brighter start and came close again when Byron Harrison forced the keeper to race off his line and make a save, the rebound fell to Sean Cooke but once again Stanway was on hand to save well.

After a frantic start the game calmed down with Chester enjoying a lot of the ball but failing to break the Dabbers defence.

Five minutes before the break, Cooke sent a free kick over the wall but Stanway was equal to it as he palmed it away to safety.

After the break, The Dabbers continued to have the better of the chances. Hewitt’s deep cross was headed towards goal by Rankin but it was well over the bar

With half an hour to go, Hewitt won the ball on half way and raced into the Chester half but crossed early and comfortably cleared.

It was a wasted opportunity for The Dabbers as they had a four on three situation.

In the 70th minute Chester went down to 10 men after second half substitute Adam Thomas came off worse from a 50/50 with Troy Bourne and was unable to continue.

At this point, Chester had used all three of their substitution intervals.

In the 80th minute, Hewitt won the ball on halfway and found Harrison, he squared it to Kai Evans but his left-footed effort was dragged wide of the goal

The Dabbers were piling on the pressure and after Harrison won a flick on, Hewitt was through on goal but his effort was weak and straight at Stanway.

The sides couldn’t be separated and so we went to penalties.

AJ Leitch-Smith stepped up first struck his effort into the top corner, Declan Weeks then stepped up and saw his penalty saved by Danny Roberts in the Dabbers goal.

Next up was Paddy Kay who rolled his spot kick home, Roberts was then on hand again to save Charlie Caton’s spot kick.

Byron Harrison and Elliot Whitehouse scored their respective penalties to make the scores 3-1 to Nantwich.

Stevie Hewitt then had the chance to win it but his spot kick was saved by Stanway.

Reece Daly had to score and he did which left it all down to Ahmed Ali, who dispatched his penalty and scored the winning penalty for the third round in a row.

(Images courtesy of Jonathan White)

🗣️“𝘼𝙗𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙗.”

Hear from manager Paul Carden after our penalty victory over Chester 🟢⚪️ (1/2) pic.twitter.com/J52jVLQe3z

— Nantwich Town FC (@TheDabbers) November 18, 2023