Tamworth Men's Firsts Vs Nuneaton

Tamworth Men’s First XI had a weekend league and cup with contrasting fortunes.  The most important game came on Saturday where they faced local rivals Nuneaton in what could already be seen as a relegation six pointer.  Tamworth made changes from the side that lost to Boots the previous week and took a strong squad to Etone.  Unsurprisingly for such an important game the game started fairly evenly with both sides probing to try and find a way through.  Nuneaton pressed and hassled Tamworth high up the pitch but Town carried a threat on the break with Ian Wagstaff causing particular trouble with some weaving runs through the middle.  As Tamworth got into their stride they won a short corner, Tom Hancox got a shot away from the top of the D which Tom Sperrink deftly deflected in from close range.  This seemed to give Town more confidence to push forward and with the back four and particularly man of the match Dave Langford restricting the hosts to half chances Tamworth felt frustrated not to have added more goals at half time.

After the break Tamworth continued to attack, with Cameron Hancox and Ollie Meldoni doing the hard yards up front to maintain the pressure.  Tamworth doubled their lead with Cameron Hancox driving forward before playing in Ryan Brisco and his shot took a deflection off the keeper and looked to be heading in before Sperrink to poached it on the line for his second.  As Tamworth started to relax and play the ball around tensions boiled over with the hosts losing players to some cynical tackles and foul play brought Tamworth’s third goal.  Again Cameron Hancox was in the thick of it, this time played in down the right he moved in on goal only to be upended by a sliding defender and as he trudged off to the sin bin Wagstaff stepped up and scored from the penalty spot.  Wagstaff continued to tempt Nuneaton into ill-advised challenges and with another robust and mistimed challenge on him Nuneaton had a player sent to the sidelines although Tamworth also lost Ryan Brisco for a very poorly timed attempted tackle as Nuneaton looked to make a foray forward.  Tamworth completed the scoring when following a penalty corner Dave Langford had his goal bound effort blocked by a foot and Wagstaff bagged his brace with another expertly converted penalty flick.

Tamworth face a Wellingborough side propping up the table on Saturday and will look to build on the Nuneaton result in the final two games before the Christmas break.