By James Briscoe
Nantwich Town banished the demons of their FA Trophy defeat by thumping of in-form Leek Town in Doodson Sport Cup.
A brace each from Ben Deegan and Harry Clayton (pictured) and an Andy White free kick saw the Dabbers coast to victory.
But despite the comfortable win, Dabbers boss Danny Johnson is still hurting from Saturday’s loss against Northwich in the FA Trophy.
“I can’t shake it out of my system. Just because we’ve beaten an under-par Leek side, I’m not going to get carried away,” he said after the game.
“The lads won’t get carried away, but fair play we’ve gone on and scored five goals and we’ve done it against opposition who are top of their table.
“They’ve made four or five changes but they had the same back four and midfield so we’ve done great.
“But I’m bitterly disappointed with the performance on Saturday and if we’d come out with the mentality on Saturday that we did here I’m sure it’d been a different scoreline.
“We passed the ball as a team, we looked to get the ball down on the floor and play some football and Phil [Eastwood], Earl [Davis] and I are trying to get the lads to play some football.
“At least we’ve looked to play the ball and get it wide and get balls in the box with some great overlapping runs and plenty of desire to get on the end of things. We could have hit double figures tonight.
“I was really pleased with Harry. He started up front and he had a bit of weight on his shoulders in the early part of the season but we’ve got Steve Foster and Ben Deegan to complement Aaron Burns.
“We know Harry’s a very good player so we’re trying to accommodate him out wide on the right and get him to become a wide midfielder for us.”
Deegan grabbed his first on 16 minutes after good wing play by Ollie Devenney who pulled back. The Leek defence stood like frozen statues as Deegan continued his impressive goalscoring form.
Mitch Husbands almost benefited from loose Nantwich defending on 21 minutes, curling just over.
Russ Courtney headed from inside the area on 22 minutes but his effort was too close to Ben Chapman in The Blues’ goal.
Rhys Swetnam had a great chance to level matters on 24 minutes, but the Leek full back blazed wide with Cudworth stranded.
Andy White extended Nantwich’s lead with a whipped free-kick on 34 minutes which looped over Chapman after Paul Donnelly glanced with his head.
Leek’s Andy Bratt compounded his side’s misery when he was sent off in the 53rd minute for gesturing a stamp towards Ross Davidson and then pushing Devenney in the chest.
Deegan fired home his second on 61 minutes with a fine finish which nestled in Chapman’s corner.
Clayton ended his goal drought on 75 minutes after Davidson dribbled past a defender to square.
And Clayton’s second came five minutes later when he tapped in a rebound following White’s free-kick.
Nantwich substitute Earl Davis, powered against the post and Sam Wilson fired over from close range before the final whistle relieved the disappointed Leek players and staff.
Nantwich face Trafford FC on Tuesday December 3 in the second round of the Doodson Sport Cup.
Nantwich Town: Jack Cudworth, Sam Wilson, Andy White, Oliver Devenney, Russ Courtney, Adam Jones (Jordan Wain 77), Harry Clayton, Ross Davidson (c), Ben Deegan (Matty O’Neill 67), Steve Foster (Earl Davis 83), Osebi Abadaki. Subs: Aaron Burns, Phil Eastwood.
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