New look Nomads pounce on Morris mistake

A cold winter evening on Wednesday brought one of Nomads best results in the seasons so far in a 1-0 victory over Bala.  Recent signing Rob Jones's cross was dropped into the goal by Ashley Morris in the 49th minute.

The Nomads came into the game knowing this would be the final phase 1 fixture of the season before they began phase 2 in the relegation conference on Saturday.  They sat 10th, knowing a win would see them go 9th above Cefn Druids.  Bala Town had just as much incentive for the game, with three points to the home side meaning the Lakesiders would go 2nd in the table.

The starting line up saw our latest signing Danny Harrison start, with new goalkeeper Jack Cookson on the bench.  Retaining their place from Saturdays game were the likes of Riley, Forbes and Bull.  The game started timidly with both sides trying their luck when on the attack.  Lee Hunt of Bala had a lob shot go wide of the goal, and Crowther went on a surging run in the midfield only to be dispossessed.  The home side saw more of The Nomads' goalmouth in the first half but the defence remained resilient throughout the game, with Terry McCormick doing well to punch out a corner on twenty minutes.

Hunt again went through on goal but was halted by a well timed tackle from Courtney, before Forbes laid on Bull in the box who turned inside his marker and hit the ball towards goal, where Morris was there to comfortably save.  This was the standout Nomads chance of the first half, illustrating how the first 45 minutes passed with little incident.

The second half started with more action, when on 49 minutes The Nomads took the lead.  Rob Jones sent the ball sailing in from a corner, where Morris flapped at the ball to no avail as the ball was crossed the line.  With more confidence, The Nomads again went for goal through Miller who hit the side netting, and turned out to be in an offside position.  Danny Harrison nearly got a goal on his debut when his long range shot whistled over the bar.  As the clock ticked Bala Town searched deeper for an equalizer, believing they’d found one when former Nomad Mike Hayes put the ball in the net but was adjudged offside.  Changes of Fraughan for Bull and Stanton for Jones helped The Nomads uphold the scoreline, as did Jack Rowlands when he replaced an injured George Horan.  As 3 minutes of injury time came into play, Bala had one final chance which saw Artell shoot just wide of the goal.

After this, the referee blew for full time, giving Nomads their best victory of the season. Though not a quality game, it is a fantastic result for such a new-look Nomads to defeat a 3rd place Bala Town. Nomads move on from this victory to face Cefn Druids on Saturday the 31st January at the Deeside Stadium, for a 2:30pm kick off.