Nomads 3s take victory against tight St. Neots 3s pack

The opposition strategy was fairly straight forward: keep a tight defence and look for the break. Accordingly, most of their players played inside their own 23, with two forwards placed inside our own 23… almost. Despite Nomads best efforts, penetrating their defensive wall proved very hard. We managed to make incursions into the D, only to face too many bodies between the ball and goal, the occasional shot going wide. It was not until the second half when Mike Tuft led the charge across the right backline and passed across. The ball was deflected by a defender up in the air, with the goalie now defeated. As the ball travelled at a height of maybe 3m, Garth first tried to hook it down, but it was the better positioned Gowland who took it mid-air, at head height with a reverse stick and into goal to seal the victory.
The game was not without challenges. To start with we lacked a centre back, so Arthur volunteered to drop back, and Angus dropped back to midfield. Generally, we controlled the game fairly well, but it was hard work for everybody compared to previous matches. Charlie and Luke had a cracking game pushing and driving the ball down the channels. Mid-field was alright but stretched at times. And up-front Mike Tuft moved really well into space and creating a lot of danger for the opposition.
We had a few attacking shorts but either shot straight to the keeper or missed the mark. St. Neots had 2 or 3 shorts but they were all dealt by skip’s sprinting prowess that neutralised any danger from their strikers. There was also a comedy moment where Davies senior literally dropped on the ball and the attacker kept hitting him on the chest plate…. what was wrong with that guy… Spence took it very personal and almost got himself sent off… luckily skip was not too far away having dropped to defend to cool things down…. We are a much better team than them and we should lead by example.
Having had a look at the table, it looks like Nomads 3s have now secured at least 2nd place in the league, which should give us a promotion spot even if we lose the remaining 5 matches, which of course is not going to happen. But it is nevertheless a good reason to celebrate. Having said that, let’s go and win the remaining matches and finish top of the league for a change.
MoM goes to Charlie Davies for great skills down the left channel, elimination skills, and created loads of opportunities.
Goal leader board now has a clear front runner:
Angus 7
Zinny 6
Mike 4
Temoc 4
Ollie 2
Murray 2
Arthur 2
Garth 1
Luke W 1
Spence 1
Charlie 1
Fin M 1