Nomads win 3-0 at home against St. Martin’s with goals from Kyle Foley, Wilf Riley and Dan McLaughlin.
Our visitors today arrived at the Proseal stadium bottom of the league and conceding goals for fun, so it was no surprise to see them set up defensively and try to deny opportunities and they did that well. Nomads struggled to move the ball quick enough and found it hard going but managed to create opportunities which on another day would have found their way into the net. The deadline was broken eventually though as Kyle Foden converted a free kick to put Nomads ahead and continue his good goal scoring form. Other opportunities were squandered however as the visitors frustrated Nomads and it looked like they would make it to the half just the one down, but Nomads had other ideas and scored a second after fine play down the left by Max Lewens whose cross found its way to Wilf Riley who scored from close range.
The second half found St Martin’s defending even deeper with a view to keeping down the scoring, and who could blame them following recent results. Nomads kept probing but found it difficult to get past the defence and when the chances did come they were squandered, or well defended and it became very frustrating for the home side. A third goal did come however and it was to be from the spot. Harrison Cunningham was upended in the penalty box and Danny McLaughlin converted to make it 3. Despite further opportunities the match finished 3-0 to Nomads
3 points and, more importantly, a clean sheet for Nomads and less goals conceded than recent games for St. Martin’s so both teams will take the positives from the game. Good luck for the season to our opponents and we look forward to seeing you in the return fixture.
Manager Jake Davies gave us his thoughts on the game:
“Today I thought we went about our business very professionally given the way St Martin’s had set up.
We have been so good at finding spaces in the pockets between the lines and with the opposition setting up with 11 men behind the ball and deep, it was always going to be challenging to get our creative midfield players on the ball as well as find space to penetrate as this was limited.
We’ll take the 3 goals and it could have been more having hit the post and their keeper making 2 outstanding saves. The pleasing thing for us was that we restricted the opposition to no goal scoring opportunities and managed to sustain pressure in their half.
The players would have learnt a lot from today’s game when playing against a team in a deep block, this will only help us grow. Overall, very pleased to get ourselves back on track and we’re looking forward to Maine Road next week. We’ll be in training and working hard as always.”
