Match Report by Ray Brown.

The Nomads returned to winning ways as they overcame a spirited Afan Lido side in a ten goal thriller at the Deeside Stadium.

With skipper Craig Jones suspended, Nomads brought in striker Dean Canning to partner Gary O’Toole up front and Ricky Evans took on the role of captain.

Both sides showed their attacking intentions from the start and the first opportunity came in the 3rd minute when the linesmen failed to give an offside and a Lido forward ran through to force a corner off John Rushton. From the corner the ball was cleared up-field and when Ricky Evans passed to Gary O’Toole, the striker ran on and hit his shot against the post. 

The first goal of the afternoon followed soon afterwards in the 5th minute. Michael Thompson won the ball from a Lido defender and passed inside to Ricky Evans, who ran on towards the left side of the goal before floating a cross to the far post, where it was headed in by Jamie Petrie.

As the game settled after this frenetic start, the Nomads strikers O’Toole and Canning were combining well and looked to be in the mood to cause the Lido defence problems. But Lido were trying to get back into the game and they were rewarded in the 16th minute when Nomads failed to clear the ball and it fell to Luke Borrelli just outside the penalty box. Borrelli hit a speculative lob over the Nomads defence and it floated into the far top corner of the goal with John Rushton unable to reach it.

Nomads were playing their usual passing game and being patient but it was from a long ball that they were back in the lead at 2-1 in the 25th minute through a Dean Canning goal. A good take by John Rushton saw him punt the ball up-field where it was collected by Gary O’Toole. He passed it into the path of Dean Canning, who placed the ball past the Lido keeper from about 10 yards.

Nomads continued to press the Lido defence and another good chance came in the 35th minute when Mark McGregor was unmarked from a cross-field free kick, but he couldn’t get enough power behind his shot and it was gathered by the Lido keeper.

With Nomads in control, Lido got back into the game against the run of play in the 39th minute. An under-hit Nomads pass out of defence was collected by a Lido player who evaded three Nomads tackles before passing to Mark Jones, who scored at the second attempt after his first shot was blocked by John Rushton.

At half time the Nomads will have been disappointed to have conceded two goals which both came from failing to clear the ball out of defence.

The second half started with the Nomads again showing their attacking intentions and Gary O’Toole was unlucky not to connect with a low cross from Chris Rowntree.
 
With Nomads looking for another goal, the Lido defence was working hard, but the breakthrough for Nomads came in the 55th minute. A corner was headed down by Michael Robinson to Macca, and he sent in a low cross for Dean Canning to tuck the ball away for his second goal. 

Nomads were 3-2 up and this quickly became 4-2, with a Gary O’Toole goal in the 59th minute, after the striker won the ball in a tussle with a Lido defender on the edge of the box. As the keeper came out to challenge, O’Toole cleverly lobbed the ball over him and into the net.

Lido appeared stunned by these two quick goals, but there was more cause for celebration for the Nomads supporters when it became 5-2 in the 64th minute with a second goal for Gary O’Toole. The move started from a throw in by Jamie Petrie to Ricky Evans, which was returned to Petrie and his cross into the goalmouth was turned into the net by Gary. 

It looked like game over, although Lido had a goal disallowed for offside in the 73rd minute and a minute later Chris Rowntree was forced to make a goal line clearance with John Rushton beaten.

As the game entered the final ten minutes, the Nomads seemed to be in total control and it seemed inevitable that a sixth goal would come, as it did in the 84th minute. This came after a superb cross-field ball from Rob Jones (on for Ricky Evans) found Jamie Petrie on the right wing and Petrie’s cross was met on the volley by Rhys Healey (on for Gary O’Toole). 

At 6-2 and with just a few minutes remaining, the game produced another twist as Lido scored two quick goals. Luke Borrelli got his second of the game in the 87th minute, then Mark Jones scored a fourth for Lido in the second minute of added time. Just to round things off, the Nomads almost scored another in the last seconds of the game, after good interplay between Jamie Petrie and Rhys Healey.

This was an exciting and pulsating game and it was a good result for Nomads. The score-line flattered Lido, who benefited from a couple of defensive errors in the first half and got two late goals when the Nomads seemed to be cruising at the end.   

Attendance: 124