Nomads Two take 3 points with 3 goals at Peterborough

Match report from Morty!!

At 9am things were not looking good. Seven slightly blurry eyed Nomads stood around Simon’s car, wondering quite how they were going to all fit into it. And who would join Rick in boot.

This situation had occurred in spite of our leader’s immaculate, and detailed, forward planning. For some not entirely clear reason, Matthew’s 3pm appointment with his hairdresser was to blame. And the fact that Spence had selfishly sold his car to buy a house. And we all know you can’t drive to Peterborough in a house.

Anyway, to general amazement there were actually 13 Nomads present and correct at the specified venue with fully 45 minutes to spare. Even more amazing as one of them was Woody.

The venue was a new one, but the pitch looked familiarly like our treasured Coldhams glue-pot, and Nomads settled in relatively solidly against a Peterborough team consisting of extreme youth and sage experience. It turned out that the youngsters could actually play a bit too, and Nomads diligently went about tackling sticks, shadows, and very occasionally ball. When we did manage move it forward at pace, however, we found plenty of space and for a while only general incompetence in and around the opposition D kept the game at 0-0. So Woody gave us all a good talking to. When it became apparent it wasn’t making any difference, he took himself off to the tranquility of the sideline.

Then Paul managed to get his stick on a cross from Julian, to neatly divert for 1-0. Amidst further general hockey-incompetence several chances to double the lead were either squandered or ruled illegal. Notably Max’s goal-that-wasn’t, after a scramble. Without being entirely certain exactly what had happened the umpires conferred and agreed that there must have been some infringement in the messy build-up, and awarded City the 16. They were probably right, though Max was left most aggrieved.

And soon after, Paul, thinking warmly about his speech for top-goal-scorer of the season award next March, managed to fluff a flick – following a goalmouth melee and shot from a metre by Rick, that was somehow kept out by a City body. Despite the rebound being slotted home, the whistle had already blown. The big question in the bar afterwards was whether Felix will be allowed to take the next one?

So, 1-0 at half-time, a frankly underwhelming performance, and with a game still to be won.

Things did improve a bit after the break as Nomads succeeded in their aim to use more of the pitch than just the motorway down the middle. There was, though, a lot of space in the middle, particularly, it seemed, around Ellis, who was starting to warm to his task after taking on Woody’s half-time coaching tips.

Passes were starting to go to sticks more often and it wasn’t long before Nomads foolishly overlooked the flaws in Felix’s unique interpretation of a left-back’s positional role in a team, gave him the ball in the attacking D, and watched him slot home from a tight angle. Or was he playing right back? I don’t know. Hard to tell. By that time Arthur’s bewildering substitution plans had left everyone unsure whether Matthew was coming on in-goal or at right wing, or possibly in midfield, so most of the team had decided to just play wherever they thought might be best. And we know what that means for the Big German (goal-scoring left, and/or right wing-back!)

Following the goal, Nomads felt a bit more comfortable, and occasional glimpses of decent hockey were sighted. Rick’s toys came briefly out of the pram and was told off; Julian’s Twickenham-styled ‘tackle’ attempt on the smallest lad on the pitch got past the TMO ruling and we remained card-less; Matthew tried to play hockey with a new remotely-piloted stick; and Sugi wholly unfairly impeded the City goalkeeper’s sliding-through-the-back challenge by selfishly running towards the goal with the ball, right up until his legs were removed from the earth.

Several short corners were squandered through further general incompetency, and then Woody marched from mid-field into their 25 and passed to Sugi's open stick on the back line to complete the eventual scoreline. No surprise there – Sugi actually goes to Tuesday night training and has been working on ‘making the goal wider’ and deflections for weeks.

So another win, and clean-sheet to boot. Which was preserved in the dying minutes by Woody’s remarkable diving tackle from behind after the City centre-forward had rounded John, and was about to put into the empty goal. It was remarkable largely because nobody, not least their centre forward, or the umpire, was able to find anything wrong with the challenge.

In keeping with the morning’s confusing administrative start, Arthur then handed in the wrong team-sheet, on which neither of the teams who played were actually listed. In doing so, he completed his ‘fait-acompli‘ to secure DoD in what was quite a competitive category.

As for MoM – Julian and Ellis both appeared to get a few mentions, and were both very busy throughout the game, so I assume one of them won it.

Worthy of note were the ‘haut-cuisine’ teas back at the ‘Boro clubhouse which raised the bar on Spaldings’ crumble, with an Italian styled savoury thingy. It was lovely, yet left us wanting more. A bit like the performance.