Wiz bang

After last week's disappointment to Ely, high-flying Wisbech visited Wilberforce Road for a much anticipated clash of old rivals. Nomads' pre-match fluctuating selection process left us with a forward-line without 3/4 of the previous incumbents, and a midfield with more guile and experience than youth and speed! The defensive line was something of a bi-polar affair, with the extreme youth of our 2 wing-backs flanking a seriously grizzled veteran centre-back partnership.
But there is a lot to be said for guile and experience. Nomads started well. The passing was kept simple and effective as we worked our way around the pitch causing Wiz problems from the off. After last week's malaise, this felt much more promising, and all that was missing was a bit of precision in and around the Wisbech D.
Wisbech, as they always seems to, looked dangerous on the break though, but John, in-goal, was solid when called upon. With 5 minutes to half-time, a rare short-corner for Wisbech ended with a drag flick goal. A good time to score apparently, but the Nomads half-time talk was about not panicking and keeping the foot on the gas.
The second half quickly became more stretched and a decent competitive game was the result. One Nomads breakaway saw a fluid end-to-end move result in Angus peeling out right and firing in a perfect cross in to the path of Rick, running the length of the field to arrive perfectly to deflect at speed towards the top corner. It would have been a great goal, had the keeper not been stood there. How unfair.
But Nomads were not phased and 10 minutes later, a short corner needlessly given away by Wisbech, was deflected deftly by Angus to gain parity on the scoreboard. It felt like a game Nomads could go on and win. But then one we could also go on and lose. The young Wiz forwards were starting to show some skill and panache and the game really was in the balance.
And then the last, disastrous, 10 minutes. Nomads lost a bit of concentration, started to give up possession needlessly, and to be fair to Wiz, they capitalised fully, when invited. A breakaway goal when we coughed up ball on the half-way line was well executed, and then further errors lead to 2 more goals in the dying embers of the game. 4-1 seemed a harsh result to a keenly fought contest. I guess we have to learn from these results, but take encouragement from the performance for 60 minutes. Sadly hockey is a 70 minute game. I blame Matty. He was awesome for the 60 minutes he played. Then look what happened when you want off, Matt! So MoM and DoD nominations from me for the wee man. So to March, we march. Another good test for us, can we prevail?