Kettering Nomads FC

30th January 2010

Norton, D Morris 

Nomads finally got back into League action with their first game since mid-December, as they picked up another home win against promoted Finedon Volta with a somewhat scrappy performance, albeit in difficult playing conditions. 

Manager Nathan Eady had decided to keep his bulging, yet moth strewn, wallet well and truly locked away during the January transfer window and, as in previous weeks, only had to make a few minor adjustments to his starting eleven. Joy came back in at centre half for injured skipper Massie, Bright returned from his tickly cough to replace the snowboarding Piazza and Loake was handed his first League start of the season at the expense of Clark, who dropped to the bench.

Starting line up:  Panter, Ingham, Jackson, Smith, Joy, Loake, Bright, D Morris, S Morris, Thurlow, Norton. Subs: Clark, Symington, Evans, Newcombe.

With rivals dropping valuable points in recent weeks, Eady was keen to impress on his players the importance of the next month, which sees Nomads play four home games on the trot against teams in the lower half of the division. These words appeared to have had the desired effect as Nomads began the game in bright fashion and passed the ball around confidently in the opening five minutes. 

However as the half wore on, the standard of play from the home side began to deteriorate, with mis-placed passes and poor communication being the flavour of the day. Even so, Nomads were creating the best chances and S Morris missed a great opportunity when through one on one, but his shot was smothered by the Finedon keeper. At the other end, Panter was having little to do, which was just as well due to the frequency that he was finding touch with some awful kicking from both floor and hands. Most of Finedon's attacks were channelled through their tall flame-haired striker who was involved in possibly the smelliest encounter ever seen on a football pitch with Nomads very own urine soaked mattress, P Smith.

Nomads eventually broke the deadlock after half an hour, when a hopeful ball forward from Joy which was aimed towards Thurlow, fell invitingly into the path of his strike partner Norton, who calmly rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the empty net. The half's only further incident of any note came as Panter and Smith auditioned for leading roles in the next Keystones Cops film, with a complete mix up which saw Smith's back pass roll past the on-rushing Panter, who then turned like the QE2 and managed to clear the danger ahead of the Finedon forward. 

The second half continued in the same vain as the first. Nomads were enjoying most of the possession but lacked any sort of cutting edge, whilst their opponents looked to try and get back into the game on the counter attack. It appeared that Nomads had put the result to bed, when just before the hour mark they doubled their lead with the best move of the match. Some lovely one touch football from Jackson, S Morris and Loake ended with D Morris bursting forward to beat the opposition keeper to the ball and guide his shot into the far corner. 

Finedon were now starting to take a few more risks as they pushed extra bodies forward to try and get back into the game, but were still not able to break down the Nomads defence, with Joy impressing in particular. Eady decided to freshen things up and used his allotted number of substitutions, bringing on Evans, Symington and Clark. With the game seemingly petering out into a comfortable home win, Finedon suddenly grabbed a lifeline as they pulled back a goal out of nothing. A long ball forward was not dealt with by Joy, and as the covering Ingham tried to pass the ball back to Panter, he completely mis-kicked it to leave the Finedon player through on goal. As Panter came out to narrow the angle, the striker passed the ball square to his unmarked colleague, who had the simplest task to put the ball into the empty net.

Nomads began to get a little panicky in the last ten minutes as Finedon saw that they may be able to get something out of a game that for long periods did not look the case. However the home side held firm, and should have actually extended their lead when Norton once again found himself with just the keeper to beat, but this time his shot was well saved.

The win sees Nomads move up one place to fifth in the table, but with several games in hand on all of their chief rivals. Next week will see another tough match at home against Stanwick Rovers.