Four goals shared evenly as Boxing Day Derby ends level

Match Report by Trevor Green:

Nomads went two goals up in the second half on a gluepot of a pitch that held up better than onlookers might have expected, but which was only marginally playable. With Nomads neat passing game rendered an impossibility and conditions favouring the hosts more direct style of finding big front men Burdys and Abbott early, a share of the spoils at the end of this local derby was a bit of a triumph for gap Connah's Quay.

Mark McGregor chose to play with a back four and put the experienced solidity of Danny Forde in for the talented ball play of young Ryan Edwards. Ricky Evans ploughed the mud up front and Rhys Healey went wide to try to find dry land to run across. Wade went close for the Wingmakers in the early stages then Abbott was unable to connect with a cross in front of goal. Rob Jones was busy for Nomads and went wide with shot from the edge of the area. Next he was played in by Danny Ford for an effort scrambled away from the line.  Rhys Healey was working the flanks and was as likely to be supporting the full backs as attacking up field, but he had a golden edged chance near the half hour when a poor clearance from keeper Morrison went straight to him. The ball got bogged down and he took a touch that allowed defenders to get back and force him to shoot wide of what had been an empty goal.

Nomads grafted over the mud and the spirit was radiated from the determination of skipper Tigger who seemed to be everywhere and was a brown smudge of mud whilst the Blue and white shirts of others still showed up. Nomads were strong and defended well but it took two fine saves from John Rushton to give us a blank score sheet at half time.

The second half started with both sides probing away down the dryer flanks. Airbus are a very big team and they threw the ball forward time on time. Nomads were simply excellent in resisting with Jamie Wynne looking every bit the excellent Centre back he will surely become. Time on time he went up with Budrys and Abbott and when not winning the challenges he made sure that they didn’t get the effort away cleanly either. We weathered the storm and started to play wide and quickly.

Four Airbus men found that the only way to stop Rhys, Rob and Jamie exploiting the slightly firmer half we were now attacking, was to chop them down with Referee Mark Petch showing them yellows. On 51 minutes Rob Jones ran, turned and twisted his way through before striking a neat low shot past Morrison. Six minutes later Jamie Petrie won the ball and broke free to send a lofted a shot over Morrison's grasp to put us two goals to the good. Andy Preece took off his ineffective central midfield pairing and sent on Glen Rule and Mike Roddy to form a more physical barrier.

Airbus became exclusively route one. Wade got on to one up field punt and sent in a cross shot that went onto the bar. John Rushton made a great save low down from Rule, but from the corner, Steve Tomassen got the final scoring touch after a real scramble on 64 minutes. Four minutes later the scores were level when a Mike Roddy free kick from wide onto the right, struck Jamie Wynne and found the net for an unfortunate own goal.

Many expected Airbus to go on to win in the final 22 minutes. But the game ended with Nomads close to snatching all three points, Ricky Evans firing just over and then Rhys Healey beating a defender before hitting a left foot shot across the face of goal and agonisingly millimetres wide of the post.

A great display and the inability of the Airbus defenders to combat the pace of our forwards without earning cards by chopping them down in full flight, gives us great hope of an even better outcome on the excellent Deeside Stadium pitch come New Years Day.

Part two of the Seasonal Derby takes place on New Year's Day, so hopefully we'll see you at Deeside Stadium for the game!

Match Photos