Northern Premier League Division One South - THE MATCH

Willenhall Town 0-3 Kidsgrove Athletic

Liam Shotton 20, 23

Matthew Haddrell 45

'Shot-On Athletic' - Official Match Report

Kidsgrove moved up to 4th in the Unibond Division One South league table after a fine victory over Willenhall Town.
The visitors started brightly, and after 2 minutes a corner from the right fell straight to the feet of Liam Shotton, who shot wide from close range, whilst on 11 minutes, Tim Sanders saw his effort deflected wide for a corner after a good run down the left.
After Willenhall’s Sam Wills saw his 25 yard shot deflect through to keeper Steve Intihar, Kidsgrove took the lead on 20 minutes after a big mix up at the back for Willenhall.
Shotton seemed to be chasing down a lost cause after a long ball forward. But it seemed Willenhall’s Chris Porter and keeper Steve Jackson were waiting for the other to deal with the situation. Porter went to play the ball back to Jackson who had started to move forward for the ball. Shotton continued his run, picked up the ball and tapped in from 2 yards.
Kidsgrove doubled their lead on 23 minutes with a more textbook approach. Sam Hall drew porter out of the back line before playing the ball through to Shotton, who sided the ball in for his second goal.
After 36 minutes, a good one-two between Jamall Pinnock and Lee Chilton saw Chilton fore an effort at goal which was saved by Intihar. But the game was effectively over in first half stoppage time as Kidsgrove went 3-0 ahead, as at the second time of asking Matt Haddrell slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

Half time: Willenhall 0 Kidsgrove 3

Things didn’t improve much in the second half for Willenhall, as Sanders shot just over after some good play by Aiden Matranga.
Willenhall showed some resilience, firstly Anthony Nicholls went close with a shot from a tight angle, Sean Pugh saw his effort saved and Tangeni Nghishidimbwa saw a good flicked header go just over the bar. But things were to worsen for them.
On 69 minutes Jackson attempted to gather up a high ball but the ball fell away from him, his second attempt saw him impede a Kidsgrove striker, since it was a good goal scoring opportunity the referee had no choice but to give Jackson a straight red card and award the visitors a penalty. Midfielder Nicholls donned the keepers jersey, but Shotton skied the spot kick over the cross bar.
The next 20 minutes was all Kidsgrove pressure, but Nicholls stood up well to the challenge. First he saved a point blank effort from Haddrell, and then he dived to his right to tip away a 25 yard effort, again from Haddrell.
Haddrell dipped another shot just wide, a great block from Porter prevented Tom Moss’s effort from testing Nicholls, and Saunders shot just over from 25 yards.
Willenhall could have grabbed a late consolation goal, but Nghishidimbwa’s 20 yard effort was just wide.

Willenhall line-up: Jackson, Williams, Robinson, Porter, Griffiths, Wills (Morton), Meakin-Richards (Nicholls), Boswell, Nghishidimbwa, Pinnock (Pugh), Chilton.

Kidsgrove line-up: Intihar, Smith, Dove (Shenton), T. Schwartz, D. Schwartz, Gibson (Moss), Matranga, Hall, Shotton (Bridge), Haddrell, Sanders.

Attendance: 72