Bootle lose 3-1 to Nantwich Town at the Swansway Stadium, another defeat for The Bucks in the road.
By Brendan Doyle
The first chance for Bootle came by way of Sean Williams who took a shot on the edge of the box with his left foot but the ball only skied over the bar. After an evenly matched game, Sean Smith made a challenge on Tom Pratt in which he seemingly won the ball but a penalty was awarded by the referee, which caused a fair bit of rage amongst the Bootle players and bench.
Byron Harrison took the penalty which Tony Thompson saved but Tom Pratt followed up on the rebound putting The Dabbers 1-0 up. Afew minutes later Bootle went up at the other end when Sam Hughes hit in a low cross attempting to find Tom Peterson but the latter couldn’t get on the end of it.
A chance fell for Joe Woolley outside the box which he attempted but Ben Garratt parried the shot away. After the save from Garratt the ball fell out wide which Sean Smith picked up and put a ball into the box which found Andy Scarisbrick but Scarisbrick’s first time effort dipped over the bar.
Just on the stroke of half time Troy Bourne found the net after a header from a corner was flicked onto the Nantwich Town skipper headed in himself at the near post. This resulted in the hosts leading 2-0 at half time.
In the 49th minute Byron Harrison made up for his missed penalty after scoring a diving header to make it 3-0 to The Dabbers, Bootle’s afternoon went from bad to worse at this point. A fantastic run from Kai Evans massively contributed to the third goal of the game.
For the large majority of the rest of the afternoon, Nantwich Town were mostly in control of the game. Although Bootle came to close to pulling one back as Toby Jones made a header towards goal but it was blocked off the line, a very close chance for The Bucks.
The hosts looked likely to make it 4-0 after Evans made another great run and continued to be a menace for Bootle and he played in Tom Pratt but Tony Thompson came out to collect the ball and clear Bootle from any danger.
Toby Jones scored a fantastic overhead kick in the later stages of the game which would be his first for the club, unfortunately the magnificent finish wouldn’t be enough to save Bootle from a disappointing afternoon as the scoreline finished 3-1.