10 goals shared in pre season thriller

Tuesday night saw a feat of goals at Halkyn Road as The Nomads and Holywell Town shared 10 goals to see the pre season friendly end 5-5.

Holywell Town started the game well playing some nice football while The Nomads took time to adjust to the pitch which could have done with a quick trim as the grass seemed very long and sometimes caused short passes to hold up and bobble a little more than expected.

It didn't take long for The Nomads to open the scoring as on the 25th minute a corner was worked short and Paul Mooney drilled a ball across the face of goal, and summer signing Jay Colbeck head home from aroun 8 yards out to give The Nomads the lead. The lead was short lived however, as Phil Lloyd, a constant thorn in The Nomads' defence managed the turn the defence and slam the ball in at Terry McCormick's near post to level the scores a few minutes after.

The Nomads quickly bounced back, as trialist Kevin McIntyre played a lovely ball down the left wing into the path of Jay Colbeck who delightfully lobbed the advancing Platt in Holywell's goal to make it 2-1 on the 33 minute mark.

Half time came and went with the score still at 2-1 to The Nomads, and at half time, the defensive pairing of Mark McGregor and George Horan came off to be replaced by Jack Rowlands and Jack Riley.

6 minutes into the second half and The Nomads were comfortable as Jay Colbeck completed his hat trick with another classy lob from the far left of the box. Two minutes later, and Jamie Rainford broke through the Holywell Town offside trap to give himself a simple finish to make it 4-1.

The Nomads continued attacking and Jay Colbeck was only denied a fourth by a goal line clearance as a corner led to him hitting a sweet volley back across goal, only to see a Holywell defender smash it clear from under his own bar. The Nomads weren't to be denied a fifth however as on the 61st minute, Jamie Rainford picked the pocket of the Holywell Town left back as he attempted to shepherd the ball out - Rainford carried the ball into the box and was quickly faced up by additional Holywell defenders, but Rainford managed to create a yard and arrow a strike into the bottom corner of the net making the score 5-1 to The Nomads.

Shortly after this, trialist Kevin McIntyre and Jay Colbeck were replaced by Ricky Evans and Gary O'Toole and Holywell seemed to find a second wind as on the 66th minute, Phil Lloyd picked up his second of the game after one of his teammates hit the bar, Lloyd was there to pounce on the rebound. Nine minutes later and Holywell had further reduced the arrears making it 3-5 as Mike Sharples' attempted clearance was blocked and the opportunity was seized by Josh Robertson.

Tempers were starting to flare a little and both sides picked up yellow cards, with Gary Roberts picking up a booking for a petulant kick out, which had the game not been a friendly, may have resulted in a red, and shortly after this, Holywell's Dafydd Griffith tapped in from underneath The Nomads' bar following a good attacking move down The Nomads' left.

Holywell continued to attack and urged on by their supporters, they were getting corner after corner, and also had the ball in the net twice only to see them both ruled out by the assistant's flag for offside. The Wellmen were not to be denied however as in the last minute of the game, a poorly defended short corner saw Matty Harvey pick the ball up on the edge of the box thumping a left footed strike in from 20 yards out, and seconds later, the referee brought an enthralling game to it's end.

The Nomads played very well for the first hour of this game with Gary Roberts running the game from central midfield, and Jay Colbeck looking very assured up front. The game also saw Mike Sharples' first start for quite some time, but the side will no doubt be very disappointed to give away a four goal lead.

The Nomads' next pre-season challenge comes this Saturday as Tranmere Rovers come to Deeside Stadium for a 2:30pm kick off.

Match Photos