An inspired Sean Cooke hat-trick helped Nantwich Town come from behind to secure a crucial 3-2 win over in-form City of Liverpool at Bootle’s Berry Street Garages Stadium, writes Liam Price.
In the first half, the home side’s successes were all coming from the wings.
New signing Elliot Morris got in behind on the right and tried to find Ishmael Sonko.
Luckily for the Dabbers he wasn’t ready and the ball bounced off him into the hands of Danny Roberts.
Roberts was on hand again to deny Morris, saving a near post attempt from him again on the right hand side.
Nantwich’s first shot on target came after The Purps’ first corner, the Dabbers breaking and Cooke trying to catch out Calvin Hare who held on well.
Jack Hont won a header from a corner that was cleared by Byron Harrison, the rebound then caught by Roberts.
But the Dabbers didn’t heed that warning.
Six minutes later, the same player Hont rose highest with little marking to power a header in from close range.
Roberts did well to push away a long range bouncing strike just before the break, the game had been meandering but it was the home team who had grabbed the initiative and were looking like a team that had only lost one of their last 10 in all competitions.
After an exchanging of what manager Paul Carden described as “a few home truths” at half time, the Dabbers looked sharper after the break.
And the true spark arrived on 55 minutes.
Stevie Hewitt swung in a free kick from out wide, it bounced around the box and Cooke popped up to poke in the equaliser.
That lit the fuse and the Dabbers looked a different team, suddenly the passes were being pinged around and City of Liverpool looked much less secure.
Kai Evans and Jake Kirby-Reed switched wings and that tweak also worked well.
Kai picked out Byron Harrison at the near post but he was not able to flick the header the way he’d have liked.
A penalty claim on Harrison was waved away and then there was another slight lull.
With just over 15 minutes to go, Akiel Raffie was brought on for his second Nantwich debut and made an impact almost immediately, putting in crosses that cause defences problems.
One of those crosses led to a corner. From that corner, another penalty box scramble led to a spot kick.
The referee had not only pointed for a Nantwich penalty but had a red card in his hand for the The Purps’ Danny Mitchley for handling the ball on the goal line.
Cooke, who for most of the season has had to cede penalty duties to Harrison through injury, was on the spot this time and put it away high in the middle of the goal to complete the comeback.
2 minutes later, he wrapped up a magnificent 25-minute hat trick as City of Liverpool struggled to adapt to being down to 10 players.
The hosts were guilty of not clearing their lines and this time it dropped to Cooke in plenty of space and he tucked it into the far corner to make it 3-1.
Five minutes from time City of Liverpool pulled one back.
A remarkable shot that came in after Nantwich couldn’t deal with a deep cross saw the ball hit both posts, a bamboozled Roberts unable to get there, and the ball pulled back for substitute Danny Mitchley to tap-in.
In the nine minutes of added time Nantwich could have killed it once and for all through Evans but he couldn’t keep his shot down.
Nantwich’s next home game is against Witton Albion in the Second Round of the Cheshire Senior Cup on December 5 at 7.45pm.
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