Nantwich Town slip to home defeat against Mossley

Nantwich Town slipped to a frustrating 1-2 home defeat to Mossley as their play-off hopes were damaged, writes Liam Price.

There was one Nantwich change to the starting XI that beat City of Liverpool 8-2, with Byron Harrison replacing Alex Panter.

Perry Bircumshaw, on the day of his 100th Nantwich appearance, fired over the bar early on.

A better opening came when Kai Evans’ cross found Kofi Moore close to goal, he made decent contact with it but Finley Madigan just about managed to keep it out but it took a couple of attempts.

It was the visitors who took the lead in the seventh minute.

Their first real move came down the right and a cross managed to reach Michael Brewster who finished in the middle of the box in acres of space.

The pattern was set, only broken by a few blocked shots here and there, one from Tom Pratt and one from Teddy Lavelle for Mossley.

Evans shot straight at Madigan, then in an end-to-end moment Pratt sliced wide.

Top scorer for Mossley Mason Fawns had a quiet day, and fired one shot over the bar about 20 minutes in.

An Evans shot from distance flashed wide and a smart toe poke from Harrison narrowly missed the post. These were stronger opportunities for the hosts.

The Dabbers were denied what they felt was a penalty for a foul on Evans after he’d got the wrong side of his man in the box.

Dabbers boss Jon Moran afterwards said it was either a penalty or a corner. A goal kick was given.

A significant moment came on 58 minutes when Nantwich captain Bourne was shown a straight red after a 50/50 challenge in the centre.

Moran afterwards had no complaints.

The home crowd had it in for the officials from early on, with little good reason.

It did seem to bleed into the 10 men’s performance and fire them up to eventually grab a deserved equaliser.

It was 1-1 on 67 minutes.

Pratt found himself in acres of space in the box and finished comfortably.

There was a question of offside but the flag stayed down and even with the question mark over it you couldn’t argue it hadn’t been coming.

However, just 16 seconds after the subsequent kick off it was 2-1 to Mossley.

Guillherme Baltazar tapped in at the far post from a Fawns’ cross to stun the buoyant home supporters into silence.

Baltazar had run James Melhado and the rest of the Nantwich defence ragged throughout and was worthy of the goal.

In the build up a loose arm caught Bircumshaw in the face as he challenged in the air, leaving him with a black eye.

Former Dabber Eric Yahaya found himself one v one with Ben Garratt but dragged his shot wide as Garratt did enough to put him off.

Jack Marrow forced Garratt into an easier bit of goalkeeping with a weak shot.

Nantwich’s best chance to grab a second equaliser fell to sub Callum Saunders.

A lovely diagonal ball was headed down by Pratt but Saunders didn’t catch his shot properly and Madigan was able to hold.

Obua Mugulula and Yahaya again didn’t test Garratt as the away side found joy on the counter late on.

Panter slashed a half decent chance wide but it was a difficult angle to score from.

He then headed straight at Madigan with the last kick of the game.

Realistically, Nantwich must now start planning for another season in the Northern Premier League West division.

(Pics by Jonathan White)