16th Sep 09 - Oxford City Nomads 2 vs 0 Ascot United
Report by Chris Byrne
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With several changes to the line-up Nomads faced Ascot who, like Nomads, were finding their feet in the Premier Division after winning promotion last season, and the home side got away to an ideal start as they took the lead after just four minutes. Ben Moses was released in space by a neat pass from Jemaine Ferreira and his powerful shot beat keeper Dave Lyons with a little help from both posts.
With confidence high from the early breakthrough Nomads pressed forward looking particularly to the pace of Mark Janes to cause problems on the right, and he and Ferreira combined well on several occasions to deliver telling crosses into the danger zone. Ben Moses, covering acres of ground all evening, got onto a couple of these crosses but was off-target with his finishing.
Ascot were moving the ball around well in midfield, and one more ambitious 30-yard cross-field pass gave Phil Boddy a chance to make ground on the left and get in a good cross that Milan Barisic did well to intercept.
After the initial excitement the game lost its momentum for some time as both sides seemed to find it difficult to maintain possession for any length of time, but Ferreira got away a good shot that the tall Lyons gathered well, and Jon Bennett for the visitors pulled his shot wide of the mark from just inside the box.
With the break approaching a probing pass from Peter Nagy was collected by Mark Janes and his low cross was struck inches over by Moses, and when Lyons’ hastily taken goal-kick deflected off his own defender to Janes the Nomads player couldn’t quite work a position quickly enough to get in a telling shot.
Hard working Adam Morris was quickly into action on the resumption as a dipping shot tested Lyons’ handling, but the visitors went close to levelling as Bennett’s low drive brought a good save at the foot of the post from Barisic and the subsequent corner flashed untouched across the goal.
Nomads were getting forwards in numbers now, but were almost caught out as Garyth Brant picked up a long clearance and Barisic needed to be speedily off his line to smother the ball.
Lyon’s goal bore a charmed life on the hour as Janes found Moses whose shot crashed off the bar to John Rixon who in turn rattled the woodwork with Lyons beaten.
The home side were carving out plenty of chances, but a combination of a packed defence; sound goalkeeping and some off-target finishing had the home supporters unsure about the result as Ascot’s quick counters looked capable of levelling the score. Sam Humphreys gave Bennett another chance to test Barisic, and then a Gosling free-kick from the very edge of the box was also dealt with well by the Nomads’ keeper.
Nomads finally got the goal their approach work merited with just five minutes left after Denel Thomas had worked hard to win a corner. The clearance from the flag-kick fell to Darryl Harris, just on for Michael Alexis, and his low shot picked out the far corner of the net.
Nomads: Barisic, Knight, Kerry, Nagy, Meade, Morris, Ferreira (Thomas D 65), Alexis (Harris 82), Moses (Thomas J 77), Janes, Rixon.
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