Franklin nets to hand Nomads fourth consecutive victory

Saturday afternoon saw Nomads pick up their fourth successive victory after Harry Franklin’s composed finish helped secure a 1-0 win over Haverfordwest in the tenth round of fixtures in the JD Cymru Premier.

Harry Franklin netted his first goal of the season after Aeron Edwards’ cool lay off saw Franklin produce a composed finish inside the area, beyond Zac Jones and into the back of the net. Kyle Patten almost equalised for the visitors late on but an outstanding save from Andy Firth ensured Nomads kept their fourth clean sheet in a row.

Form
Nomads came into this game in impressive form after Mike Wilde’s header sealed a 1-0 victory over Pontypridd, maintaining Nomads’ unbeaten run at Deeside this season. Just three days later, Nomads were back in action with a trip to The Oval seeing goals from Ryan Stratulis and Aeron Edwards hand Nomads their first away win of the season.

As for the visitors, a slight dip in form has seen Tony Pennock’s side lose four successive games after topping the table early on the season. However, a 1-1 draw against Flint and a midweek victory over Cardiff Met has given The Bluebirds some hope of pursuing a top six finish.

Team News
Neil Gibson made three changes from the victory over Caernarfon as George Horan returned to defence in place of Danny Holmes. Harry Franklin and Aeron Edwards were also amongst the starting eleven, replacing Paulo Mendes and Aron Williams.

Haverfordwest made two changes from their win over Cardiff Met as Tony Pennock called up Iwan Watkins for his first start in the Cymru Premier. Jazz Richards also came back into the side with Jamie Veale and Ben Fawcett dropping out of the squad.

The First Half
Straight from kick off, Nomads were instantly causing trouble for the Haverfordwest defence as Harry Franklin enjoyed space down the right hand side, however his cross sailed beyond Mike Wilde and Mike Hayes inside the area. Aeron Edwards then delivered a delightful ball in search of the strikers but Zac Jones was there to deny Wilde the sight of goal.

The away side went extremely close to scoring the opening goal as Iwan Watkins picked up the ball down the left and curled towards the far corner which saw Andy Firth pull off a wonderful save to deny the forward.

Haverfordwest had another glorious opportunity to open the scoring as Jack Wilson broke free of Ben Nash and led a counter attack with Iwan Watkins beside him. Wilson decided to go alone and look to chip Andy Firth from distance but his shot was way wide of the target.

Nomads were then forced into an early substitution as Kris Owens went down with what looked like another injury scare. This comes just days after Owens made his first team return and so on came Ryan Harrington in his place.

Minutes later, John Disney floated a long ball forward into the feet of Mike Wilde who turned inside the area but was tackled by Elliot Scotcher just before he could get his shot away.

Just before the half time whistle, Nomads had another chance to test Zac Jones as Rayn Stratulis delivered a dangerous free kick which found the head of Aeron Edwards who directed his header towards the near post but Jones was untroubled and could see it behind for a goal kick.

The Second Half
Nomads made the breakthrough ten minutes into the second half as a ball into the box fell to Aeron Edwards who checked his options and spotted the darting run of Harry Franklin, seeing Franklin calmly finish past Zac Jones to give Nomads a 1-0 lead.

Nomads were constantly posing an attacking threat on the Haverfordwest backline as Ryan Stratulis retrieved the ball on the left hand side and cut onto his right foot before unleashing a strike towards the far corner which took a wicked deflection but Jones was alert to stop the ball from trickling into the near post.

Stratulis was involved yet again and forced Jones into another save. Harry Franklin found Stratulis on the edge of the area who then looked for the top corner but Jones remained calm to hold on.

Nomads were continuing to enjoy possession in the final third as they looked to double the advantage. A header away could only fall as far as Ryan Harrington who struck a first time volley in pursuit of the top left corner but his effort was inches over.

With just five minutes plus stoppage time to play, Haverfordwest began to apply the pressure as a long ball into the box led to a goalmouth scramble where Ben Nash brilliantly slid in to make a key challenge, keeping the clean sheet intact. Haverfordwest substitute Kyle Patten nearly equalised just before the 90th minute as a cross deep towards the back post saw Patten send a header on target but Andy Firth quickly reacted and superbly tipped the effort over the bar.

Nomads were able to hang on and see off the late pressure, meaning Harry Franklin’s first goal of the season was enough for all three points which moves Nomads up the table and into second place.

Nomads now focus on their next game where our JD Welsh Cup campaign gets underway with a trip to Denbigh Town on Saturday 9th October with a 2:00pm scheduled kick off time.

Match Photos

Match Report by Adam Angerer