Mens 1s vs Sudbury 1s

Nomads went to Sudbury to write the wrongs of last season where we narrowly lost 3-2 in the closing stages of the game. The weather was much the same and notably the old school building had been knocked down and replaced by a field.

On to the game, Sudbury started, firing the ball forward bouncing awkwardly off Will Charltons stick and falling to one of their charging forwards, a missed tackle from the back line left Ethan Brown on the wrong end of a 2 on 1. 1-0 down after less than a minute. There second goal followed quickly after with Nomads having to deal with a very fast press and rotation through the middle. A good move left them in D with options and they scored. Not long after a short corner was conceded, with Matt Voult taking a ball to the foot which sidelined him for the next hour. Ball came out to the top of the D, drag flick into the crossbar...of the football goal behind the hockey goal - nothing for Ethan to do. A couple of minutes later another short corner was concede this time without the loss of a centre back. Drag flick again easily stopped by Ethan, the ball however fell loose in the middle and a soft reverse hit which Andrew Woodhead claimed he could have stopped put nomads 3-0 down.

Mike Longson then came on into the midfield rotation, with Alex James moving into a forward role. Nomads were now going at the Sudbury back line who didn't seem to have a response, however Mike failed to cause any problems by being unable to string a pass together for the first 5 minutes he was on the pitch much to the delight of the Sudbury defence. Rich Lloyd making some excellent leads in the front 3 allowing gaps to be opened up, this led to Nomads kept breaking with a good move from Sam Walker-Farrant up to Martin Hamon, who neatly fed the ball between two defenders to leave Mike with a 1v1 on with the keeper. Unfamiliar with this situation he opted for the drag right which the keeper anticipated, the ball did however fall to Paul Matthews with an open goal - he too could not find the target. Nomads now with the intent to go forward trailing into the break 3-0. Short team talk at half time led to the revelation that we would be playing with 11 for the rest of the game.

Sudbury tried to go at us again with the same intensity of the first half but this time Nomads were set and ready, nothing came from it and now Nomads were on the front foot. Sudbury then opted for the half court press which isn't something Felix Polonius is used to - being able to walk the ball up to the half way line unimpeded! Great leads from Sam and James Willington allowed Martin and AJ lots of room up front to lead into. A ball down the right to Martin who drove into the D and along the baseline easy pass across to AJ waiting on the back post. Nomads 1-3 the comeback was on. Shortly after Will received a green card for repeatedly putting his hand on the back of the person he was trying to tackle, down to 10 men for 2 mins - Nomads defence held strong.
A number of opportunities came and went over the next 10 mins with the final ball before the shot being cut out or pockets being picket (ball speed is a must!). Sudbury then had a few short corners at which they went for the twin castle setup. Last time we saw this was UEA last season - a classic uni setup. Felix and Mike where more than up to the task to prevent any further damage to the score. Woody always gets credit for a goal like stop on the right post.

Short corners now for Nomads, Mike (who'd been bragging about these new drag flicks for weeks) rolled the ball forward to their keeper, surprisingly it was saved...the dummy hadn't worked. On to Plan B, slip to James and back in...only problem Mike and James were not in sync and the ball went behind Mike (not having a great day by this point) and away for a Sudbury sideline.
Plan C - redemption time - drag flick far post to Sam. IT WORKED GOALL!!! Nomads 3-2 with 10 mins to go.

Much of the rest of the game was spent end to end, when suddenly Nomads broke away, overload up front ball went across to Paul sat on the back post who opted to flick instead of slip the ball to Mike under his arm with an open goal. Then the final whistle blew Nomads gutted once again - the better team for the majority of the game.

MoM - Rajen for managing to talk himself out of a card as the umpire agree with the point he was making.
DoD - Mike for not only driving to teas BEFORE the game or having a shocker of a game but for wearing his brothers shorts after the game. Overall Sudbury wasn't good day that day him!!