Tamworth Men's Firsts Vs Nottingham

Tamworth Men’s First XI were narrowly defeated 4-3 by a late goal at home to Nottingham.  Town were missing a number of first team regulars, particularly in defence and knew they would need to be at their best in this fixture.  Tamworth got off to the perfect start as Ben Robins won the ball on half way and drove toward the D before exchanging passes with Tom Hancox and firing low into the corner to give Tamworth the lead.  This jolted Nottingham into action and they came back strongly scoring two quick goals to take the lead and looked like threatening more as the hosts were overrun at the back.  Town adjusted formation to try and gain a foothold in the game but Nottingham scored again to double their lead and continued to look dangerous.  As always Tamworth carried a threat on the break and Sam Turner went close twice before Hancox was tripped in the D and a penalty flick was awarded which captain Ian Wagstaff despatched into the top corner to make it 3-2 at half time.

After the break Tamworth looked much more solid and the game became a midfield battle as chances dried up at both ends.  With a high press Tamworth managing to snatch an equaliser as a clearance was blocked and the ball dropped to Tom Sperrink who swept the ball in.  Town suffered another setback with an injury to Andy Parker in defence forcing a further reshuffle and although both sides saw disallowed penalty corner efforts fly inches over the backboard it was Nottingham who would have the final say as in the dying minutes a long pass and neat first time deflection handed them the lead and the points.

Frustration for Tamworth as their efforts merited a point but with tough fixtures coming up in the next few weeks they will need to regroup and build on what has still been an encouraging start to the season.