Hayes & Forde put Lido to the sword

Match Report written by Ray Brown.

A second convincing home win in four days strengthened the Nomads’ aim of securing a place in the European play offs with Danny Forde and Mike Hayes once again appearing on the scoresheet. Having had to travel up from South Wales for this midweek game, Afan Lido showed great commitment and at times belied their position at the bottom of the league table but they were unable to breech the Nomads defence which held firm without conceding a goal for the first time in seven games.  

Apart from a second minute Lido effort which required a good save from John Rushton, there was little action to entertain the sparse crowd in the first fifteen minutes. Then in the 16th minute the Nomads started to take control of the game and a Ricky Evans header from a corner kick was stopped on the goal-line, leading to another two corners in quick succession.  

A few minutes later in the 24th minute, the Nomads were 1-0 up, courtesy of Danny Forde who latched on to a Rob Jones pass to hammer the ball into the corner of the net. Credit to Rob Jones for getting his pass away despite being fouled by a Lido player and credit to referee Lee Evans for playing the advantage and allowing Danny to score.

Having taken the lead, the Nomads were in the ascendency and after good build up play, Ryan Edwards hit a long range effort over the crossbar. Shortly afterwards, Jamie Petrie made a good run into the Lido box, beating 3 players on his way. Then Mike Hayes threatened the Lido goal when collecting the ball from a long throw-in from Rob Jones, but he was penalised for a foul on the keeper as he tried to squeeze the ball into the net.  

A neat one-two between Ricky Evans and Hayes saw Ricky run into the box, but Lido cleared and then Rob Jones shot just wide after being put through by a pass from Ryan Edwards.  As half-time approached it looked as though the Nomads would go in 1-0 up but a second goal came in the 44th minute when Ricky Evans fed a pass through to Mike Hayes who saw his first shot saved by the Lido keeper but followed up to hit the rebound into the back of the net.

At half-time, the Nomads looked good value for their 2-0 lead. The visitors had looked dangerous on occasions, with Chris Hartland showing his pace and skill on the ball, but apart from the save made by John Rushton at the start of the game, the Nomads’ goal had remained largely untroubled.

The first action of note in the second half came when Mike Hayes made a good run into the Lido penalty area, but play was stopped when he lost control and was judged to have committed a foul after trying to win the ball back. This was followed by a spell of Lido pressure on the Nomads’ goal and after Mike Robinson slipped on the ball, John Rushton was called on to make a very good save. Minutes later, Rushton was forced into another good save from a Lido header and he was relieved to see a 30yard effort from Hartland bounce back into play off the crossbar.

After this spell of Lido pressure, the Nomads once again took control and it was no surprise when a third goal came in the 75th minute, with Mike Hayes the scorer.  The goal started with a flowing move out of the Nomads’ defence with Ricky Evans running in towards goal from the left before hitting a shot which rebounded from the far post straight into the path of Mike Hayes who hit it into the net.

Two minutes later and Ricky Evans sent in a short free kick to the unmarked John Hardiker who was unfortunate to see his goal-bound shot hit the post and go behind for a goal kick. This was followed by an outstanding save from John Rushton as he palmed a fierce shot from Lido’s Hartland over the bar.  

As the game drew near to a close, both sides made late substitutions then a Ryan Edwards pass gave Mike Hayes a chance to get his hat-trick, but his shot was blocked.

A good performance by the Nomads and the added bonuses of not conceding and not collecting any bookings.