Nantwich Town 4 St Helens Town 1 DON'T be fooled by the sorry scoreline! Beleaguered Town had a day of woe with events off the field dictating their fate, while controversy on it denied a battling effort some recognition.

A traffic accident involving goalkeeper Mike Allison and wide man Chris Walmesley en route to the team bus connection left Town without a keeper against a prolific scoring Nantwich Town whose John Scarlett is the division's top marksman.

The task was hard enough as Town took the field with striker Steve Pennington in goal while a shaken Walmesley managed to get to the ground and rally to the cause but was clearly effected by earlier events.

Despite all they had endured, Town put up a spirited fight and with 20 minutes left were holding their hosts at 1-1, but then came the cruellest of blows when rookie keeper Pennington was sent off for dissent.

The incident turned the game as a linesman's flag indicated that Pennington had carried out of his area when clearing drop kick style. The resultant free kick was secondary only to a penalty award and Nantwichs Paul Rennie made the most of the gift to put his side ahead, when they were running out of ideas as Town had stubbornly held on in protecting their keeper.

Dissent was the verdict as Pennington peeled off the keepers jersey and headed for the tunnel with Aidie Reilly taking over in goal enabling the Dabbers to take advantage of Towns plight. Scarlett (73 mins) and Agius (90 mins) used the spaces to put a veneer on a flattering scoreline and deny St Helens some credibility their earlier efforts merited. Despite sacrificing some ambitions in order to protect their goal Town did superbly in the first half and Ungi had already blazed a great chance over before being involved in an intelligent exchange resulting in Glenn Walker firing Town ahead on the half hour. Not surprisingly Nantwich had earlier sought to capitalise on Towns handicap but Pennington made too fine block saves from Scarlett while Davenport wasted a good opportunity.

Town were looking good approaching the break until deep into added time, a midfield muddle resulted in Nantwich's John Scarlett racing clear to slot past Pennington's advance.

The second half saw Town content to batten down the hatches once more, resulting in Pennington only having to make routine saves from Scarlett while a home penalty claim went unheeded as Reilly and Scarlett tumbled. Towns belief was getting stronger until that fateful linesmans flag against Pennington which was to present the game to Nantwich and leave Town wondering just when their luck is going to change.

Town face a stiff task to get back on the rails this Saturday when they face either Mossley or Clitheroe at Hoghton Road 3pm (The outcome depending upon a midweek cup tie).

Either will be a handful as the latter were last years FA Vase finalists whilst the former are now in the last eight of this years Vase competition.

Following this Town travel to Chadderton on Tuesday February 11th (7.30pm).

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