Nomads scare league leaders, but Spalding squeak a victory

Nomads hosted Spalding on a pleasant January afternoon at Coldhams. Once again, team “selection” was a difficult, particularly as the First team were short of key members of their squad. The game started brightly with Nomads camping out in Spalding's half.

It was great to Nomads playing some excellent hockey and much more authoritative than the previous week – much fewer hospital passes! Joel's return from overseas also made a telling difference to Nomads' midfield. It was great to see some 'strangely unfamiliar' face such as Ed Holmes, but also new Nomad, George MacFarlane, who acquitted himself admirably.

Spalding found their travel legs and started to applying pressure, resulting in two goals. At the other end, a good Nomads attack down the middle resulted in a shot on goal. The half-clearance found its way to Dan Jarvis on the right hand side who found the net from 5 yards out.

After half time, Spalding clearly had reworked their tactics and closed down our mid-field much more than in the first half. Our opposition threw plenty at our defense who proved to be resolute – chasing down every man and ball. Ethan made some excellent saves – more than making up for their second goal, which he will be able appreciate in years to come as he videoed the whole game for a school assignment! Irregular Ed Curwen did tremendous work breaking down the opposing attack and then fluidly starting our attack from the back and supporting it as the ball crossed the half way line.

Dan Jarvis leveled the match at 2-2 with a fine short corner drag flick. From conversation at the bar afterwards, it was believed that the shot was going wide, but the goal keeper pushed his defender to cover the goal only for the defender's stick to deflect the ball past his own goalkeeper into the net with 10 minutes to play.

Sadly, in the final minutes, Spalding managed to overload the Nomads defense and find a man on the back post to slot home to clinch the victory.

In the end, Nomads can hold their heads up high with some of the best hockey of the season. Indeed at The Brook, their captain commented that this was one of their tougher games and, for a while, they were worried that they might not have done enough to win.