Nantwich Town lose at home again in 2-1 defeat by Clitheroe

First-half - Kai Evans rues a miss on goal (1) (1)

Nantwich Town succumbed to another damaging defeat as Clitheroe won 2-1 at the Swansway Stadium, writes Liam Price.

Joel Connolly made his first start since Hanley Town away on August 20 after a combination of mostly injury and some time on the bench.

Callum Saunders also started, with Kofi Moore and Joe Robbins the two to make way from last week’s loss at Stalybridge.

Jack McEvilly saw a header cleared almost off the line from an early Clitheroe corner.

Dylan Dwyer flashed a shot wide as the away side signalled their intent by playing their full backs very high up the pitch.

Arguably the best Nantwich chance of the first half came inside the first 10 minutes, when James Melhado’s positive run ended with Tom Pratt seeing a shot pushed away by Clitheroe keeper Liam Isherwood.

A Clitheroe free kick was poked over the bar at the back post by McEvilly.

Connolly picked out Kai Evans who made a mess of his shot for the hosts.

Second-half - Alex Panter heads close for the Dabbers (1) — Second-half – Alex Panter heads close for the Dabbers

Leon Creech, in spectacular form for Clitheroe in 2025, had his best chance on the stroke of half time when striking a clean shot wide via a slight deflection, with Garratt not moving.

Danny Wilkins curled over the bar from the corner that followed.

In the second half, Clitheroe threatened early on but the pattern of the first half, two teams working hard and competing strongly across all areas of the pitch, continued.

That changed on 56 minutes. A deep cross came off the head of Ben Hockenhull and to the feet of Lenni Cirino.

He was in so much space he was able to take one touch to set himself up and another to curl past Garratt and give the visitors the lead.

Second-half - James Melhado puts in a cross (1) — Second-half – James Melhado puts in a cross

Hockenhull had half a chance with a header which went tamely at Isherwood.

It came to him in strange circumstances as he’d found himself on the floor from the hurly-burly of the set piece and had to throw himself at the header.

Wilkins nearly got in on goal just past the hour but an excellent last-ditch challenge from Perry Bircumshaw denied him.

Evans was having a frustrating game in open play, marshalled well by the outstanding Sam Olawumi.

So it was from a dead ball that Evans came closest to adding to his goals total, a free kick that was dropped and caught on the second attempt by Isherwood.

Nantwich began to gain momentum but that was wiped out by a second for the visitors.

A cross into the path of Cirino was finished from close range.

Two Dabbers subs combined to try and drag a bedraggled team back into it, Kofi Moore crossing for Alex Panter to head wide.

Clitheroe could have made 0-3 on the break but Creech was just held up before he could shoot.

Nantwich did get one back in stoppage time.

Second-half - Kofi Moore on the ball (1) — Second-half – Kofi Moore on the ball

A ball pumped into the box bounced down to Saunders, who got a bit of luck with a touch off his back but no luck at all with a brilliant second touch to set up a simple finish and his seventh goal of the season.

And the Dabbers could still have nabbed a point right at the end.

Another deep ball by Garratt saw Hockenhull get his head to it ahead of Isherwood but it dropped just wide.

And with that the game was done as Nantwich’s miserable 2025 showed no sign of stopping.

The next home game for Nantwich Town is against Avro on Saturday April 5 at 3pm.

(Photos courtesy of Jonathan White)