Despite a final day victory against playoff chasing Radcliffe FC, Nantwich Town were relegated out of the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
Nantwich’s draw at Marske United on Thursday night meant their task was simple: they needed to defeat Borough and hope that Stalybridge Celtic who had already been relegated could beat Atherton Collieries to give them any chance of survival. Radcliffe on the other hand needed a win and hope that Hyde United would lose at 2nd place Warrington Town to give them a chance of getting into the end of season playoffs.
The visitors took the lead through Jake Thompson on the half-an-hour mark. However, after the break, Nantwich stepped up a gear and equalised through Dan Cockerline before Connor Evans gave the Dabbers the lead with twenty minutes left on the clock. Sadly, it was not enough for Paul Carden’s men as Atherton Collieries drew at Stalybridge to condemn the South Cheshire side to their first relegation in 37 years.
Knowing they had to go all out for the victory, the Dabbers started the stronger of the two teams and could have gone ahead after just 40 seconds of play when a cross from Sean Cooke found Evans. However, the forward could only direct his header straight into Jack McIntyre’s hands.
Cooke then had a chance on three minutes when he ran at the Radcliffe defence before hitting a chance from outside the area, which flew wide of McIntyre’s goal. People might have wondered if Cooke would have been better off passing to a teammate but, the magical midfielder has made a career out of scoring goals from that sort of range, so he had every right to take the shot.
As Cooke had that chance, news filtered through that Atherton Collieries had taken the lead at Stalybridge Celtic through Ben Hardcastle. That news did take the sting out of the game as the chances started to dry up for both sides.
The next real chance came on 30 minutes which was the game’s opening goal as Matty Grivostri’s cross found Jake Thompson at the back post and, he had an easy task of heading Radcliffe into the lead. It was a goal that hoisted the visitors into the playoff places as Hyde United were already losing 2-0 at Warrington Town.
Despite being a goal behind, Nantwich continued to impress with Evans going through on goal but, McIntyre came out which forced the forward wide of the goal, and his effort was cleared. While right back Aiden Roxburgh put a cross-come-shot over the bar just before the half-time break.
That half-time period allowed Carden to regroup his players and for everyone else to have a check on that all-important scoreline at Bower Fold, where the news was indifferent. Stalybridge had turned it around to lead 2-1 but just seconds before the break, Atherton’s Gaz Peet had scored a penalty to level up the scoreline.
Nantwich were deservedly level ten minutes into the second half as Cooke played a perfectly weighted through ball to Dan Cockerline who was free in the area. The former Southport forward calmly rolled the ball into the back of the net to give the Dabbers a bit of hope.
The goal added fire to the Nantwich belly and, those flames were burning white hot on 66 minutes when an over-the-top ball found Evans who brushed off the challenge of Radcliffe defender Rick Smith to go one on one with McIntyre. The goalkeeper raced out of his goal but, Evans was cool enough to slide the ball through the legs of the keeper and into the back of the net to give Nantwich a priceless lead and, more importantly, they started to believe that they could pull off the great escape.
Shortly after that goal, news started to filter through again from East Manchester. This time Stalybridge had gone 3-2 up and as it stood Nantwich were going to survive in the Premier Division. The announcement over the PA system was greeted by large roars of approval from the majority of the 778 fans inside the Swansway Stadium as the possibility of survival looked very real.
However, more news came through from Stalybridge just five minutes later and, this time it wasn’t good news as Atherton had equalised to make it 3-3 and we were back to square one in terms of Nantwich potentially going down.
That third goal from Atherton Collieries really did kill the game off as a contest at the Swansway Stadium and, along with the fact that Nantwich were leading saw them put all 11 men behind the ball at times in order to stop Radcliffe from trying to steal an equaliser. Thankfully it worked for the Dabbers as the side pushing for the playoffs were unable to muster a real chance on Paddy Wharton’s goal despite seven minutes of injury time.
In the end, Nantwich ended the 2022/23 Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division season with a win but sadly it wasn’t enough to keep them up and, next season will be the first time in 15 years that they will be playing outside of the Premier Division. Radcliffe, on the other hand, knew it was a missed opportunity as Hyde United lost at Warrington Town, which meant had they won in South Cheshire, they would have made the playoffs. Instead, it will be the Gladiators of Matlock Town who will compete in the Premier Division playoffs.
After Nantwich’s relegation was confirmed, Dabbers boss Paul Carden spoke live on Moorlands Radio about the relegation and the game in general.
Nantwich Town: Wharton, Roxburgh (Hewitt, 46), Bircumshaw, Okome, Moran, Bourne, Humbles, Connelly, Evans (Sherratt, 89), Cooke (Harrison, 76) and Cockerline.
Unused subs: Scully and Malumo.
Radcliffe FC: McIntyre, Evans (Brewster, 81), O’Brien, Joyce, Smith, Thornley, Grivosti, Adams, Bange, Navarro (Piggott, 62) and Thompson (Ndjoli, 73).
Unused subs: Carter and Mercer.
Attendance: 778
