Kettering Nomads FC

14th November 2009

                                              D Morris, Ingham, S Morris 

Nomads once more showed that they have bags of bounce-back-ability, as they put the disppointment of last week's defeat behind them by ending the current league leaders 100% record.

Nathan Eady once again shuffled his pack, with three changes from the previous week's starting eleven. Marks and Joy were replaced by D Morris and Evans, whilst S Morris came in on the left hand side of midfield for Clark, who was away picking up a well deserved trophy at the National Childish On Pitch Banter Awards. The substitute bench was further swelled by the return of Symington, Newcombe and, in his first appearance of the season, Loake.

Starting Line Up - Panter, Ingham, Massie, Smith, Evans, Piazza, Bright, D Morris, S Morris, Thurlow, Norton. Subs - Symington, Loake, Joy, Marks, Newcombe.

With Daventry boasting a perfect six wins out of six, Nomads knew that this was going to be another tough test, particularly on the back of the poor performance that they had shown last week against Ringstead. With the gusty conditions in their favour for the first half, it was important that they began the game well, to try and regain some of the confidence that has been seen in earlier matches.

However they got the worst possible start, as Daventry went ahead in the opening five minutes. A corner from the right should have been headed away by S Morris but he inexplicably completely missed it and the Daventry forward was able to head the ball in himself off the post, despite Evans best efforts on the line. 

Nomads looked to get back into the game straight away, and a good move down the right flank saw them have strong appeals for a penalty waved away as Thurlow was sent sprawling after receiving a shove in the back as the ball came into the box. At the other end, Daventry looked to catch Nomads out on the counter attack, utilising the considerable pace of their centre forward and right winger in particular. As the half wore on, Nomads continued to press for an equaliser, but either saw their final ball over hit in the blustery conditions or possession needlessly conceded back to their opponents.

With one of Eady's hairdryer blasts ringing in their ears, Nomads started the second half with the wind now in their faces. Slowly but surely they began to dominate the play, as Daventry struggled to get out of their half of the pitch. Sensing blood, the away side pressed even harder, and the inevitable equaliser came as some good work down the right from S Morris and Ingham ended with a great cross from Norton that was only partially cleared, and as the ball dropped, it was smashed in on the half volley by the arriving D Morris.

Daventry seemed stunned by what was happening and suddenly it was they who were squandering possession and misplacing their passes. Eady now decided to go for the jugular, as he introduced Loake and Symington into the game at the expense of Bright and Norton. This then had the perfect effect as Nomads scored two more goals in the space of the next five minutes.

First, Ingham latched on to a half clearance to hit an unstoppable shot into the top corner from just inside the box, and then a Loake free kick perfectly picked out S Morris who, with just the keeper to beat, completely missed his kick before beating Daventry's chunky shot stopper at the second attempt.

There seemed to be no way back now for Daventry, but to their credit they pushed to try and get some sort of lifeline in the match by forcing a number of corners. However a combination of strong defensive headers, some unorthodox handling by Panter and a smidgen of good fortune, saw Nomads see out the reaminder of the game unscathed.

The win sees Nomads right back in the title race, and sets things up perfectly for next week's trip to Moulton in the last 16 of the Junior Cup.