JD Cymru Premier

 

Bangor bounce back from early Nomads lead




Bangor City FC

4 - 1


Connah's Quay Nomads

Bangor City FC vs Connah's Quay Nomads
JD Cymru Premier
Friday 1st November 2013 | 7:30pm
Nantporth, Bangor | Attendance: 604




An early goal from Michael Hayes was soon washed away by a rampant Bangor City side who went on to to score four goals in front of their home crowd.

A positive start from The Nomads saw a goal come their way just three minutes in, however Bangor soon went two goals up and then doubled their lead after the interval.

The Nomads had the right to feel positive before the game with more defensive options available with Jack Rowlands returning and Mike Sharples making his first start of the season back from a foot injury.  Over a month ago they had defeated Bangor 2-1 at Deeside for the first time in seven years.

Since then Bangor have improved from a struggling start to go on and get important wins over the likes of Port Talbot.  Former Nomads Rob Jones and Jamie Petrie have settled into blue colours well and have provided a big threat to all teams so far.

The Nomads' early lead came just three minutes into the game when after being brought down, Hayes continued to play, regaining the ball and striking the ball past Lee Idzi from a difficult angle to put the visitors 1-0 up.  This goal brought on a phase of good pressure from The Nomads, forcing a couple of corners along with Ryan Edwards coming close with a great effort.

This phase however was short lived, with Bangor City waking up and launching more offensive play upon The Nomads' goalmouth.  The breakthrough for Bangor came when Les Davies' header defied The Nomads' defence to put the Citizens level.

Once the home side had a taste for the game they wanted more and more, with Sion Edwards making a strike from the edge of the box that rocketed into the roof of the net, in what was to be the trigger for a dominant Bangor display and a superb individual one from Edwards himself.

Two goals in two minutes for Bangor seemed to rock The Nomads so much they wouldn't recover for the remaining 70 minutes of the game.  The rest of the first half was very much an attacking display from Bangor who had found their feet, out-battling Nomads in the midfield.  Bangor's dominance brought on a number of stunning saves from Terry McCormick, without whom Bangor would have been going into the break a few more goals up.  Thanks to McCormick the score remained the same at half time, with Bangor 2-1 leaders at that point.

Substitutions shortly after the second half's start saw O'Toole leave the field for Simon Everall, who did provide an improved threat for The Nomads' strike force during the times they were in possession.

This boost to Nomads was soon killed off by Jamie Petrie scoring a goal against his former team to send Bangor 3-1 up, practically ending The Nomads' hopes of a second half comeback.

Bangor rounded the game off ten minutes later with Sion Edwards scoring his second of the night to give Bangor a 4-1 lead to show their well polished performance despite a shaky start.

The Nomads saw little action after this, Simon Everall sending a square ball into the box intended for Craig Jones, but this attempt was intercepted by Bangor who despite The Nomads' efforts in attack had looked comfortable for the majority of the night.

The full time whistle ended an all round negative game for The Nomads who next face Newtown on Friday 8th of November.  The game will be at Deeside, a welcome return home for The Nomads after two weeks on the road, and an ideal opportunity to get back to winning ways.

After the game, Director of Football Mark McGregor said "After another disappointing defeat and performance I deserve all of the stick I am going to take. I know that we can play a lot better and defend better as a team - can we turn the corner? Yes.

Football is about taking the rough with the smooth - when we were in third place I knew and kept telling people we were only three defeats away from a relegation battle, but if anyone know where this club should be, it's me. There is a long term plan in progress and I'll work hard this week with the players to get a positive result against Newtown on Friday - we must aim to get a minimum of seven points from the month of November."