Nomads Make It 12 Points in 4 Games Away To Bradley

A 3-0 victory vs Bradley Park keeps CQ Nomads top of the table coming towards the end of August.

Going into the game after a hard fought victory in mid week vs Caerwys, The Reds were full of confidence away to Bradley.

Bradley themsevles had a great victory against new comers Bellevue, so they'd be confident themselves.

The preparation for the game took a knock at 22:30 on Friday night, with Joe Sullivan and Conor Harwood being called up to the first team, Junior Scott stepped in at the eleventh hour, however left 13 players in the match day squad, which was far from ideal.

This report can't cover all incidences in the game, as there were many! The game could have and should have, been a goal fest.

The game started off very brightly for the Reds, with lots of possession and looking very good coming out from the back. Bradley were playing a very high line and the front 3, made up completely of first year scholars, were very naive and caught offside on a huge number of occasions. Hats off to Bradley who were defending stoutly, with good defensive shape - they kept clear cut chances to an absolute premium for the Nomads.

Before the goal went in for Nomads, they could have been 1 down, with some good play from the home team resulting in a looping ball hitting the bar.

Jacob Barrett would get his first goal 10 minutes before half time to make all the pressure pay off. Some brilliant work down the left hand side between Craig Chisholm and Sam Fowles saw Fowles released on the left hand side who whipped in a delightful cross which Barrett duly dispatched 6 yards from goal.

The half time talk consisted of telling the lads to stop getting involved (and indeed instigating) in pettiness stemming from some poor decisions from the referee and banter with the opposition and to watch their line going forward for offsides.

Two changes were made at half time, Junior Scott on for Karter Cutler-Evans who had a knock and Jack Swinnerton for Sam Reynolds.

Nomads were in the driving seat from the first kick of the second half and with their new plan at half time they created chance after chance. Bradley kept their line high and it was getting ripped apart by the speed of the front 3. The central midfield trio of Dan Smith, Ben James and Owen Manley were a joy to watch, their composure on the ball was delightful and watching James in particular pop up all over the space between the defence and midfield to link everything was excellent.

Nomads were slightly toothless going forward and some of the decisions infront of goal, coupled with a handful of brilliant saves from the Bradley keeper kept the score at 1-0 until 20 minutes to go. The Reds had no fewer than 6 1v1's against the opposition keeper and non were scored, this was a worry for Woodward and Manley.

On the 70th minute, substitute Jack Swinnerton doubled the lead and calmed some nerves. Captain Sam Roberts taking things into his own hands with a centre back overlap, saw him in the home teams final third - released by Craig Chisholm. A great cross which was a carbon copy of the first goal saw Swinnerton bury his chance.

10 minutes later Nomads got a third with a Jacob Barrett brace - After Owen Manley released him on the right hand side, Barrett drove into the box, dancing past his man before rounding the keeper and slotting home.

A 3-0 victory away from home is a good result for Nomads, a clean sheet on the road with all goals coming from first year scholars - however the game could have been much more ruthless from Nomads infront of goal and we will put the missed opportunities down to the lads waiting to get into the swing of things.

Scorers
Jacob Barrett (Ast. Sam Fowles)
Jack Swinnerton (Ast. Sam Roberts)
Jacob Barrett (Ast. Owen Manley)

Player of the Match - Ben James
Ben James was the thread that linked much of the play up today. He played as the designated deep-laying playmaker and thrived in the role, Bradley set up to stop Alex Swindell coming through the defenders, but James was just popping up everywhere to collect the ball, sometimes under pressure from a marker. His decision making and the fact that he was a danger from any position on the pitch with his range of passing made him a thorn in the side of Bradley all game.