Nantwich Town 1-3 Warrington Town

Warrington Town secured their first ever win at the Weaver Stadium, beating Nantwich Town 3-1, to move up to third in the table.

Josh Amis’ late goal made sure of the points after the Dabbers had threatened to come back from a two goal lead in the final quarter.

A rare Dave Raven goal gave the Yellows a first half lead, and Matthew Chadwick doubled it from the spot on 65 minutes before Joe Malkin’s header made a game of it.

With former Nantwich left-back Louis Barnes banned following his red card against Bamber Bridge, the Yellows handed a debut to 18-year-old Tom Warren, a former Everton youth player, with another teenage new signing, Elliot Richards, named on a four-man bench.

An at times feisty match saw seven yellow cards, starting with Alex Byrne in the sixth minute for hacking down Sean Cooke, who would return the favour deep in to the second half.

As is often the case in games between top sides, there wasn’t much in it, and the opening exchanges were dour at best, until a mazy run by Jack Mackreth through the heart of the Nantwich defence created space for a tame left foot shot that was food and drink for Greg Hall.

The only action of note at the other end saw Malkin hold off Mark Roberts to lay off for Cooke, who had his shot comfortably saved.

The Yellows then lost Mackreth through injury, replaced by Bohan Dixon, but took the lead on 36 minutes after a neat interchange on the right hand side saw the ball find Gray in space, he dummied past a defender and then slid the ball through for a rampaging Raven who swept home past the onrushing Hall.

It was always going to be a backs against the wall job in the second half for the Yellows, but they doubled their lead on 65 minutes when a rare attack saw Dixon play the ball down the line for Chadwick, his pull back was only half cleared and Gray was fouled.

Chadwick stepped up to score from the spot for the second successive game and the Yellows had a two goal cushion.

It was short lived though, four minutes later, a fizzed ball in from deep by Cooke was headed home beautifully by Malkin, and for a spell, the Dabbers had their tales up sniffing an equaliser.

They ran out of steam in the closing stages though and the Yellows made sure of the points, substitute Josh Amis cutting inside, linking up with Byrne and Garrity, who put in a lovely slide rule cross in for Amis to bury from close range.

Nantwich Town: Hall, Hughes, Devine, Davis, Langley, Harrison, Mwasile, Bell, Malkin, Cooke, Lawrie. Subs: Webb, Bourne, McDonald, Walsh, Saxon.

Warrington Town: McMillan, Warren, Duggan, Raven, Roberts, McCarten, Byrne, Garrity, Gray (Richards), Chadwick (Amis), Mackreth (Dixon). Unused subs: Speare.