Morning Glory

Cambridge Nomads M2s failed to win a single point against either of the other 2 Cambridge clubs last season – a blemish on an otherwise strong season, where they beat every other team in the league at least once.
So an early season ‘visit’ to Cambridge City represented an opportunity to put that recent history to bed.

An eclectic squad revealed itself over the previous 24 hours – with a bit of inter-club jostling seeing some players dropped, some promoted, and some both within a day. Anyway - a strong looking bunch assembled, unreasonably early on Saturday, ready to do battle with the old enemy.
Quite when Ganja and Whitey last featured in a Nomads line-up is up for conjecture – but I am guessing it was well over 10 years ago, and almost certainly never in a 2nd team. We were pleased to have them. Newly appointed stand-in Skipper, Rick, turned up in full kit, but not really intending to play much of a part on the pitch.
With the new-old additions to midfield, his usual place was more than covered, and he was allowed to bellow and bawl from the sidelines. Hockey really is a much easier game to play from there, and he proceeded to produce his best performance of the season.

So, to the game. Nomads started brightly moving the ball well through the lines. Our forwards ran intelligently into the gaping spaces and moved the City defence around. City attacked mainly down their right hand side and gave us a few problems without ever really threatening the goal. Matty ‘ball-magnet’ Voutt intercepted one such right sided attack with his leg (lifted at pace into him from 5 yards) , and was soon hors-de-combat. We shuffled the back 4 moving Felix to LB, Leo into the middle with Barry and Ben coming crucially into RB. Ben is a deceptive young fellow. His youth and slight stature belying a strength and fearless competitiveness that you underestimate at your peril. He proceeded to boss the right hand side of our defence, dealing with everything City threw at him with aplomb, and finding his intended recipient with every pass.
Elsewhere, the midfield dominated. Luca and Will Evans provided pace and go-forward to counter the wily experience and languid excellence of Ganja in the holding role. Rolling back the years, we introduced Robin White for his first Nomads appearance in a decade. I think he enjoyed it!
Despite all the general excellence, the game remained goal-less as we approached the end of the half. Then a short-corner melee ended with Felix somehow not scoring from all of 2 metres, but it appeared he was prevented from doing so by a City foot. Spence’s excellent umpiring intervention resulted in a p-flick, with time up. Paul (Farrage?) stepped up quickly, before Felix could, and, after a lengthy delay caused by an extended discussion between some City players and the umpire, clinically dispatched said flick. 1-0, and half-time.

The pattern of the game was much the same in the second half with Nomads having a load of possession without, quite, nailing the final pass or shot. Eventually Ganj found himself advancing into the D, priming for his season-defining top corner finish. But Ganj seems to play the game at a different pace to anyone else, and before he had the chance to pull the trigger the whistle blew for a Nomads short corner. Cruel. Except this time the faltering corner routine resulted in Paul bringing down a deflected ball, dummying his shot to commit the keeper, and lifting it sumptuously over the prone keeper into the net. Quality.

Further chances came and went – with Mel and Yujian coming agonisingly close, Yujian on his very promising Nomads debut.
City crafted one clear chance after Nomads turned the ball over, but John in goal held firm, standing up when required, after little action up to that point. In fact Nomads did not concede a short corner (their Achilles heel last week) all game. Credit to an excellent defensive performance.
So 2-0 it ended. Our first clean-sheet, our 2nd win, undefeated after 4 games, and really 2-0 was the least we deserved from a largely fluid and hard-working performance from the whole team.
Ben bagged the MoM for a nigh-on faultless display. It was great to have Ganj and Whitey back where they belong (?) and Rick got to celebrate, John Terry-style, in full kit, to mark his 100% winning record as occasional Captain over recent seasons. Clearly the lesson is to play himself less, or not at all!
And the beer, pizza, and company (less than 6) in the Red Bull were excellent, to wrap up a perfect morning.