A depleted Witton Albion battled hard on New Year's Day but fell to two late goals as they were defeated by local rivals Nantwich Town at Wincham Park.

Skipper Josh Wardle missed the game with a foot injury while Liam Goulding was suffering with a dead leg as Albion yet again had to contend with further injury problems.

The returning Nick Ryan took his place at the heart of the Witton defence, his first appearance back in a red and white shirt since suffering a bad injury at Marine in 2018.

It was a quiet start to the game with neither side offering too much in the way of goalmouth activity.

It took until the 20th minute for a sight of goal and it fell the way of the visitors, with a half cleared cross falling to Joe Mwasile whose shot was always rising and it flew over the crossbar.

Witton's first real effort on goal saw the deadlock broken. The referee stopped the game before awarding Albion a drop ball inside the Nantwich half. The visitors' defence dropped off and allowed Isaac Baldwin to send over a low cross for loanee Danny Mitchley to tuck home from 15 yards, his first goal for the club.

Nantwich were close to an equaliser on 36 minutes as Joel Stair sent a goalbound header which Chris Renshaw expertly tipped onto his crossbar before the Albion defence cleared their lines.

The second half saw the visiting side dominate territory and possession as they went in search of an equalising goal.

But the Albion defence was well organised and compact and made it incredibly difficult for Dave Cooke's team.

Renshaw produced a decent save to keep out a 20 yard free kick from Sean Cooke while Joe Malkin fired over from the edge of the box with the majority of the action occurring around the Witton penalty area.

An equalising goal finally came on 82 minutes, with Nantwich finally forcing the Witton defence out of position with some excellent interchanging passes around the box, resulting in a smart finish by Cooke.

With the resistance finally broken, Nantwich sensed a late winner and it was bingo for The Dabbers in the final minute of the 90 as a left wing cross was headed home by Joel Stair.

Kyle Sambor sent a volley just wide three minutes into injury time, but Albion couldn't claw themselves back.