Congleton Town are into the 2nd qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup for the first time in seven seasons as they produced a stunning 2-0 win at Northern Premier League Premier Division side Nantwich Town.
A first-half tap-in from Dan Needham and a second-half penalty from Darren Chadwick ensured that the Bears are through to the next round of the competition for the first time since the 2015/16 season, back then they faced a tough away game at Whitley Bay where they narrowly lost 2-1 so will be hoping for a better draw this time around.
The two sides’ start to the new season have been complete opposites. Nantwich are yet to win this season having drawn twice and lost three times, while Congleton Town have found the back of the net 21 times already and have won five of their nine games in all competitions. The stage was certainly set for an Emirates FA Cup upset.
The Bears could have been ahead after just 90 seconds of play when Shakeel Jones-Griffiths did well to get down the wing before crossing the ball to Needham, with the forward looking certain to score Nantwich goalkeeper Louis Gray made a fantastic save to deny the striker.
Gray was then called into action again on seven minutes when a mistake by a Nantwich defender saw the ball fall to Arron Johns. The forward’s effort was destined to hit the back of the net until Gray’s arm denied him the game’s opening goal.
The former Everton youngster made his third fantastic save of the afternoon on 13 minutes when the Dabbers failed to clear their lines and the ball fell to Needham who saw his shot smartly turned around the post by Gray.
It wasn’t just Congleton who were looking for an early breakthrough, Nantwich were looking for one as well. The Dabbers had a good chance to open the scoring on 21 minutes when birthday boy Sean Cooke rounded Congleton player-manager Richard Duffy before going one on one with Dave Parton, however, the normally ice-cool Cooke was to put his chance over the bar. It was Cooke’s last action of the afternoon as he picked up a knock while attempting to score and had to come off for former Leek Town man Matt Bell.
Dan Cockerline really should have opened the scoring on 31 minutes when the ball fell to him inside the area, he rounded the onrushing Parton who came off his line to narrow the angle, but with several Congleton players back helping Parton out, Cockerline was to clip the crossbar with his shot.
The Bears finally got their lead on 37 minutes when Johns managed to steal the ball off Nantwich captain Richie Sutton who was trying to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick. He crossed the ball to Tom Pope who unselfishly rolled the ball across to Needham who had the easiest job in the world to tap the ball into the net from around a yard out. It was no less than what Congleton deserved as they had played extremely well throughout the first 45 minutes.
After the break, the frantic nature of the game calmed down a bit as Congleton looked to protect their lead. They did it superbly as they restricted their hosts to half chances that were never really going to test Parton out.
Nantwich suffered a second hammer blow just before the hour mark when Cockerline picked up an injury when challenging for a free-kick. The former Southport forward received attention for several minutes and, the stretcher was brought on as everyone in the ground feared the worst. However, Cockerline was able to walk off the pitch with his arm in a sling.
Congleton doubled their lead with just 12 minutes to go when they were awarded a penalty as Ethan Hartshorn was bundled over by Matt Bell leaving the referee with no option but, to point to the spot. Up stepped former Leek Town captain Darren Chadwick who made no mistake as he thumped the ball past Gray and gave the Bears that bit of space between the two teams.
With time running out, Nantwich applied the pressure as they looked for a way back into the match, their best chance saw Jack Sherratt hit a peach of a free-kick towards the top corner of the goal. It looked certain to nestle into the back of the net, however, Parton scuttled across his line to palm the ball over the bar and out for a corner.
Due to the injury to Cockerline, the referee added on nine minutes of injury time at the end of the game and, it presented Nantwich with two glorious chances to score. The first saw AJ Leitch-Smith head a long ball from Joe Mwasile into the hands of Parton. Then in the final minute of injury time, Joe Robbins went down looking for a penalty, however, he was cautioned for simulation and a free kick was awarded to the visitors.
Congleton head into the 2nd qualifying round of the competition, which is set to be played on 17th September, they will find out who they will get on Monday at 1pm. Keep an eye on our social media channels to see who Congleton are going to play. They will be hoping to take this performance into Wednesday night’s league match away at Avro. Meanwhile, for Nantwich, they will be hoping to bounce back quickly, and get their season started, against Belper Town on Tuesday night.
After the game I spoke with Congleton Town assistant manager Anthony Griffiths to get his reaction to the game.
I also caught up with Nigel Deeley, first team coach for Nantwich to get his thoughts on the game.
Nantwich Town: Gray, Edwards (Moran, 57), Lawton, Bourne, Sutton, Sherratt, Mwaslie, Robbins, Cockerline (Leitch-Smith, 60), Cooke (Bell, 26) and Grant.
Unused subs: Miller, Castellano and Heath.
Congleton Town: Parton, Williams, Nsaka, Jones-Griffiths, Duffy, Read, Sankey (Beaumont, 82), Hartshorn, Pope (Hampton, 90), Johns (Chadwick, 74) and Needham.
Unused subs: Faulkner and Clarke.
Attendance: 329
