Tamworth Men's Firsts Vs Nottingham

Tamworth Men’s First XI were taught a harsh lesson on Saturday as they were beaten 4-2 at Nottingham after conceding two late goals when chasing victory.  Tamworth had taken a strong team and dominated the game in the early stages.  Ian Wagstaff in particular was pulling the strings in midfield and the pace of Tom Hancox, Ryan Brisco and Cameron Hancox was allowing Tamworth to put some good moves together in the final third if not creating clear cut chances.  Town took the lead they deserved when Ben Acheson played a pin point long pass from defence and picked out Tom Sperrink who skipped past the last defender and drilled his shot low into the corner from the top of the D.  This seemed to galvanise Nottingham and Tamworth lost some of their early momentum and led to two Nottingham goals as they bounced back to take the lead, although Tamworth will feel both were soft and avoidable.

In the second half, with Tamworth now chasing to get back in the match, the game opened up and as they game swung from end to end both sides had good opportunities.  Nottingham had a handful of penalty corners with Simon Carey in goal maintaining his good form with a series of excellent saves.  Tamworth still carried their threat on the break and the best chances were for Sperrink who failed to get enough power behind a shot and Ryan Brisco who couldn’t quite pick out the final ball when looking threatening.  It was from a break that the equaliser came as Sperrink rounded the keeper after being played through on goal only to see his shot illegally blocked by a defender on the line.  Wagstaff stepped up and dispatched the penalty flick with confidence and Tamworth pushed on searching for the 3 points with further encouragement coming when Nottingham lost players to sin bins for some wayward tackling.  The result of the game all came down to 5 minutes of madness, Tom Hancox was played in and looked certain to score only to see his reverse stick effort slide wide only for Nottingham to break with a long ball and snatch the lead.  Tamworth tried in vain for an equaliser in the dying stages but it was the hosts who would have the final say as they rubbed salt in the wounds with a goal from a penalty corner from the final play of the game.

Tamworth face league leaders Boots next week but need to maintain the positive performances of recent weeks before some crucial games against fellow relegation battlers in the following weeks.