Southport Visiter

Olympic effort needed for Skem to lift the cloud

- BY EMMA SANDERS

SKELMERSDA­LE United suffered a devastatin­g 4-0 defeat against Nantwich Town on Tuesday evening despite showing improvemen­t in recent weeks.

The defeat followed two encouragin­g matches against Ikeston and Gratham Town in which Skem avoided defeat.

However, Nantwich Town caused problems for Tommy Lawson’s side from the off and they had the upper hand going into the half-time break.

Skem were unable to mount a comeback in the second half and their task was made even more difficult when Kenny Strickland was sent off following a feisty challenge in midfield.

Nantwich then built upon their two-goal lead and man advantage and though they also went down to 10 players before the full 90 minutes was played, they had already secured a comfortabl­e victory.

Skelmersda­le now face an even tougher test when they take on league leaders Rushall Olympic on Saturday.

Rushall are three points clear at the top of the Evo-Stik Pre- mier Division while Lawson’s side are struggling in 23rd place, just one off the bottom.

Skem are trailing Sutton Coldfield and Ilkeston by three points and desperatel­y need to pick up points before the end of January.

The last time the two teams met, Skem only suffered a slim 1-0 defeat at Dales Lane and had enough opportunit­ies to add goals to the score-sheet.

Lawson will be hoping his side can deliver a similar performanc­e given the fact Rushall have lost two of their last five fixtures.

Injuries have plagued Skem’s season so far and they are expected to be without a number of players on Saturday but Lawson is continuing to bring in new faces and there could be some new signings in action again this weekend.

 ??  ?? Tommy Lawson
Tommy Lawson

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