Lancaster City beaten away at Warrington Town

Lancaster City were defeated 2-0 by high-flying Warrington Town.

It’s a second consecutive defeat for the Dollies, who lost to South Shields on Saturday by the same scoreline.

The result at Cantilever Park on Tuesday sees them move down a place in the NPL Division to 16th.

In truth, Lancaster had very few if any noteworthy chances up until the last 15 minutes of the game, which was their strongest period of the match, but by that time the damage was done.

A bullet header from Tom Harrigan and a poacher’s goal from Jordan Buckley, both assisted by Sean Williams, got the Wire their victory.

New signings Matthew Tweedley, a midfielder who has joined the club on loan from Bolton Wanderers, and Nathan Woodthorpe made their full debuts. Youngster Shae Cannon made his first Dollies appearance off the bench.

Lancaster were able to name five substitutes at Warrington, after only being able to name three at South Shields.

Bohan Dixon tried his luck for the hosts from range early on but his speculative strike cannoned off the right side of the crossbar.

Lancaster struggled to create almost anything that could lead to a goal in the first half but were defensively resolute, just like they were in large parts on Saturday. In between Dixon’s effort and the opener, the best chance fell to Declan Walker direct from a free kick, who got it over the wall but couldn’t guide the ball past Sam Waller.

Sean Williams provided a fantastic delivery to put it on a plate for Tom Harrigan, whose header at the front post gave the home side the lead with a couple of minutes to go until the half time whistle.

The second half started just as the first had played out, with Lancaster having to deal with waves of Warrington Town pressure.

Waller, who Lancaster City’s media team named as their man of the match, kept out Jordan Buckley at the first time of asking when his shot came off the goalkeeper’s foot, but Buckley scored the second time round. With under ten minutes of the second 45 played, Williams once again curled in a peach of a cross that found the number nine, who poked it home to double the advantage.

Lancaster’s number one made a good stop to deny The Wire a third, making a late dive to his left at full stretch.

There wasn’t much for Tony Thompson in the Warrington Town net to do, apart from parry out a volley from just inside the hosts’ box to avoid the deficit being halved.

Mark Fell spoke to the media post-match and praised Matthew Tweedley’s performance on debut, saying “his contribution was brilliant” and that “I’m really looking forward to working with him”. He also thought Nathan Woodthorpe was “great” in his first match for the club.

Fell admitted Lancaster are in a “tough place” but said that he’s had “some really good discussions with the club” since the weekend.

He continued, “I’ve said to the players, we have two choices: we can go under in our situation or we can roll our sleeves up.

“I’ll work with the board this week to get another couple [players] in, because we need another couple.”

Up next for Lancaster City is a return to home turf, where they will host yet another team in fine form in FC United of Manchester on Saturday.