Nomads M2 stun Spalding

It was a thing of great beauty, and ultimately a moment that defined the game.

Until that point Spalding were the better team. But Nomads had defended stoutly, and Spalding hadn’t produced any cutting edge in front of goal.
In fact from Nomads first, of a few, random short corners, Angus topped one expertly over the Spalding keeper’s outstretched pad to give Nomads a barely deserved early lead.

And then, after slowly working their way in to the game, Nomads produced that moment of hockey perfection. A fleeting glimpse at this level, perhaps, but one that makes you think it is worth turning up week after week.

Four passes.
From an un-promising position deep in our half, to the ball nestling in the corner of the Spalding net. Every touch, pass, and shot delivered at the right moment, with pace, and with precision.
It started with Woody, deep, out to Arthur, in his new favourite left back guise. Crowded out, out on the left touchline in his own half, Arthur brings in Rick at pivot. Mel leads high and wide, and Rick threads a pass through the Spalding midfield to pick him out . An immaculate first touch takes him round his marker, bursting down the left channel. Turning in, Mel looks up, and picks out the onrushing Will, who takes a touch, has a look, and calmly slides it across the keeper into his right corner.
Who knows, maybe 10 seconds, 4 passes, 8 touches? A goal to savour.

From random short corner number 2, Nomads then added insult to injury when Mel took his time, had a cigar, and calmly slotted home from Will’s reverse pass. Almost like we had practised it for hours at training. We hadn’t.
3-0 up at half time, and having defended for a majority of those 35 minutes, this was brilliant.

But there was still a lot of hard work to do. For most of the 2nd half Spalding came at Nomads. And yet the clearest chance fell to marauder-Mel, once again playing off the shoulder of the last defender, and fashioning a clear chance that clipped the outside of the post with keeper beaten.
But either side of that, Nomads sat quite deep, worked really hard, every man doing their job, and kept Spalding fairly comfortably, at bay.
Young Tom at right-back, once he showed up, put in a great shift up and down the flank. It would definitely be preferable if he could make the start of the game next time. Woody and Barry anchored things deep, demonstrating all their considerable experience. And, of course, when called on, John protected his goal with aplomb.

We even had the pleasure of watching Ganj do what Ganj does. Mainly ghosting around the midfield finding gaps where none exist and appearing with the ball at the end of his wand. But it seems even Ganj is human, and with no training under his belt, no matches, and, I would like to assume, his nose buried in a fine Bordeaux Claret most nights, his considerable influence faded somewhat in the second half (ie he took himself off for a breather), and he left the mere mortals to scrap hard to protect that precious three-goal deficit.

Never underestimate the value of good defending, my friends. Without that, those fleeting glimpses of perfection will mean nothing. And in the end, the good defending, that moment of quality, and the slick short corners, got us through to a hugely satisfying 3-0 victory.

Woody won MoM for his influential role at the back, but everyone really played their part, with particular mentions to born-again, Saintly-Will, marauder-Mel, and occasional left-back Arthur.

And Tom, of course, bagged the Cotton trophy (sorry, DoD) after blaming his Mum for not knowing the start time..