Nomads overcome tough Bay battle to reach fourth round

Saturday afternoon saw The Nomads progress into the fourth round of the JD Welsh Cup after a 4-0 win over Colwyn Bay thanks to a brace from Mike Hayes, a calm finish from Mike Wilde and a late Callum Morris penalty.

Form
The Nomads reached the fourth round of the JD Welsh Cup after putting five past Denbigh at the start of October to set up today’s cup clash. Nomads have also been on terrific form in the Cymru Premier, with recent wins over Pontypridd and Newtown maintaining the pressure on TNS at the top of the table as well as setting a new club record of ten straight victories in all competitions.

As for Steve Evans and his Bay side, a 4-1 win over Bow Street in the last round meant their unbeaten run all season continued. Bay have won every game since the beginning of August, and sit top of the JD Cymru North. The Seagulls produced an epic comeback last weekend after coming back from two goals down to pick up a 3-2 win over Llanidloes.

Team News
Neil Gibson named an unchanged eleven from Nomads’ staggering 5-0 triumph over Pontypridd last weekend. Nomads were also delighted to welcome back Kris Owens, who returned from injury and was named on today’s bench.

Steve Evans made three changes from his side’s comeback win over Llanidloes as Guto Williams, Alex Downes and James Kirby all came in to replace Joe Williams, Cai Owen and Sam Downey.

The First Half
Callum Morris came extremely close to opening the scoring inside the first minute after Danny Holmes’ long throw-in from the right hand side eventually fell to Morris who tried to hook the ball over Ryan Woods, however the midfielder’s strike was inches over the top.

Just moments later, Mike Hayes opened the scoring after a long ball found Mike Wilde who delightfully flicked the ball onto Hayes seeing the striker poke his effort beyond Woods and into the back of the net.

Andy Firth did well to find Ben Nash in a wide area, Nash sprinted down the right before delivering into George Horan who got in front of his marker and directed his header goalwards but his attempt was just wide of the bottom corner.

Mike Hayes was on target for a second time as he grabbed his brace. Nomads were able to control the ball in the final third which saw Josh Williams reach the byline and square to Hayes who was left with an easy finish into an empty net.

The tension was evidently rising as both teams received yellow cards. Colwyn Bay’s Dylan Allshorn was booked for a foul whilst trying to win possession back for his side. Two minutes later, John Disney was then booked by the referee after halting a Bay counter attack.

Just before the half time whistle, Josh Williams almost turned into a provider again as he spotted Callum Bratley around 15 yards from goal who went for a first time curler which Woods was able to hold onto and keep it at 2-0.

The Second Half
Both sides made substitutions at the start of the second half with Nomads introducing Ryan Stratulis in place of Josh Williams and Bay bringing on Tom Creamer for Tom McCready.

A series of Bay corners finally lead to a chance for the Seagulls as an in-swinging delivery saw a shot fly goalwards but Andy Firth produced a fine save to show why he is the Cymru Premier Player Of The Month.

The visitors continued to have spells on the counter attack and more corners with Sam Hart going for the spectacular from the edge of the box but his audacious attempt bobbled wide of Firth’s goal.

Mike Wilde made it 3-0 on the 70 minute mark with much of the hard work coming from Ryan Stratulis. The substitute dribbled into space, darted forward and was through on goal, his shot was denied by Woods but there was Wilde to latch onto the rebound and slot home.

Bay then made a double change as Stefan Edwards and Craig Lindfield came on for Guto Williams and striker James Kirby.

Nomads also made a substitution a little later with Harry Franklin coming on for Mike Hayes. A crucial brace from Hayes today meant he continued his amazing goal scoring form, bagging six goals in his last four games for Nomads.

Nomads were awarded a penalty with five minutes to go as Harry Franklin got down the left and drifted inside onto his right foot but was brought down by Alex Downes inside the area leaving the referee no choice but to point straight to the spot and give Nomads a great chance to make it four.

Callum Morris stayed calm and converted his penalty into the bottom left hand corner, sending Bay keeper Ryan Woods the wrong way.

Franklin found himself on the attack again as he burst through the centre, Franklin chose to go alone and release a powerful strike at the near post but Ryan Woods was there to deny the substitute.

Next Fixture
Nomads now focus on their next fixture which sees them host Caernarfon Town at Deeside in the next set of fixtures in the JD Cymru Premier where Nomads will look to extend their winning streak to 12 games. The match will take place on Friday 18th November with a 7:45pm scheduled kick off time.

Match Photos

Match Report by Adam Angerer