Good workout against League Two Runners Up

Tuesday night saw Connah's Quay Nomads continue preparations for our first venture into the UEFA Champions' League with a behind closed doors game against Crewe Alexandra.

The Nomads made the short journey to Crewe's training ground to face the side managed by former Bala Town defender, David Artell, who won promotion to League One in early June after the League Two season was finished on a Points per Game decision.

The Nomads' starting lineup featured new signings Aeron Edwards and Danny Davies along with established names like Mike Wilde, Declan Poole and Callum Morris. The Crewe starting lineup featured new signing Offrande Zanzala, alongside Chris Porter with a number of the Railywayman's regular starting eleven.

Our first pre-season game is about to get underway against @the_nomads

STARTING XI: Jaaskelainen, Johnson ,Lundstram, Lancashire, Pickering, Wintle, Dale, Finney, Onyeka, Zanzala & Porter.#CreweAlex pic.twitter.com/zAxouCgTNI

— Crewe Alexandra (Stay Alert) (@crewealexfc) August 4, 2020

The Nomads made a good start to the game, taking the lead after just seven minutes. A long throw into the box initially fell to John Disney who struck with his left foot, seeing his effort blocked and dropping to Callum Morris on the edge of the box, who struck first time to curl his ball past the Crewe number one, Will Jaaskelainen.

Crewe grew into the game and as expected took control of the majority of posession, however The Nomads could have potentially doubled their lead when Declan Poole burst into the Crewe box - it looked as though Poole was clipped by Harry Pickering on his way into the box and could have gone down, however Poole got his shot off only to see it blocked by Jaaskelainen at close range.

Crewe's first real chance of the game came in the 36th minute when Chris Porter and Tyreece Onyeka linked up on the edge of The Nomads' box, only to see Onyeka's effort go wide of Lewis Brass' goal, meaning The Nomads would stay in front at half time.

Crewe made wholesale changes in the second half, coming back into the game with an entirely different eleven which featured the midfield trio of Ryan Wintle, Daniel Powell and Charlie Kirk.

SECOND HALF XI: Richards, Ng, Offord, Nolan, Woodthorpe, Griffiths, Robbins, Ainley, Kirk, Powell, Trialist#CreweAlex

— Crewe Alexandra (Stay Alert) (@crewealexfc) August 4, 2020

Crewe again maintained large periods of posession in the second half and it was 10 minutes into the second half that they drew leval thanks to a close range finish from Daniel Powell. Ainley broke through the midfield and took a shot on the edge which deflected perfectly into Powell's path who placed the ball past the stranded Lewis Brass who was moving in the direction of the initial shot.

Five minutes later, Andy Morrison made wholesale changes for The Nomads with seven players coming on from the bench and the new faces were quickly punished as within a minute of their introduction Crewe scored a second as the substitutes looked to get up to the pace of the game as Charlie Kirk beat Aron Williams to the ball inside the box to slot past Ollie Byrne who had replaced Lewis Brass in goal.

The Nomads went extremely close to an equaliser in the 82nd minute when Sameron Dool forced an impressive save out of Dave Richards in the Crewe goal. Dool curled a free kick towards to top corner only to see a flying Richards impressively deny him what would have been a great equaliser.

In the final kick of the game, Callum Ainley tapped in a Luke Offord cross to give the scoreline a somewhat uneven look at full time, however the game achieved more minutes in the tank for the players with the majority of the starting lineup getting 60 minutes, and a few playing the full 90.

The Nomads now await the result of the First Qualifying Round draw on Sunday to confirm our opposition in the Champions' League, before we look to lineup against European opposition in little under two weeks.

Match Photos

Match Report by Nik Mesney