Nomads get Christmas gift with Cheadle derby victory

Boxing Day saw Nomads travel to local rivals Cheadle Town for an early kick-off.

With Town closing in on a playoff spot and Nomads looking to catch teams above the relegation zone meant it promised to be a great game.

Nomads made three changes to the side that drew with Abbey Hey with Warren, Lopes and Sidibeh coming in. Nomads started the better side and after 4 minutes Danny Byrnes followed in a strike from Sidibeh to give Nomads the lead. It was just the start Nomads were looking for and the goal was just reward after some good football down the left-hand side.

A few minutes after Sidibeh had a big chance to make it 2-0 after some tenacious work down the right-hand side.

Town grew into the game and were controlling possession without really creating much with it. However, Nomads were often sloppy in possession and not doing enough going forward . After a number of silly free kicks had been conceded by Nomads eventually one came to fruition for Town after Kyle McGonigle followed in a free kick that struck the crossbar. Cheadle Town were the more dominant side going into the half-time break.

HT: Cheadle Town 1 NOMADS 1

After no changes from either side at half time, the game continued in very much the same vain with Town having more possession but Nomads always looking a threat on the break and in the 57th minute Dass hit a thunderous strike in the corner of the net with his left after Nomads had worked hard high up the pitch to regain possession.

Morgan Piper had made a couple of excellent saves to keep the score at 2-1 especially one from a Pat Davin header that was looping into the corner and somehow Piper got a hand to it. The rest of the defence like Warren, Cunningham and Osigwe were continuing to put their bodies on the line to keep the lead for the away side.

In the 87th minute, Nomads made it 3 when an own goal was scored after industrious work from Sidibeh down the left-hand side. By this time Nomads had introduced Bickerton, Deering and Whalley who had given Nomads more energy and quality.

The game was effectively wrapped up in the 89th minute when Sidibeh earnt a penalty after he nicked the ball before the Goalkeeper who then took him down. He got up to his feet to smash his penalty into the top left corner. Just reward for a player that had worked tirelessly throughout the game.

Cheadle Town got a consolation goal in basically the last kick of the game but although not a perfect performance Nomads got a valuable 3 points in the Cheadle Derby ahead of another big game on the 2nd January against Stafford Town.

FT: Cheadle Town 2 NOMADS 4

After the game, we caught up with manager Rory Fallon.

“It was an entertaining game for the neutral and I thought it was a great advert for football at this level. The game could have gone either way if I’m being honest and perhaps we rode our luck at times but that is bound to happen as Cheadle are a good side.

However, we came strong in the second half and our substitutions gave us fresh impetus at a time when the game was 1-1.

We created a number of really good chances throughout the game and that’s pleasing from an attacking perspective. Other areas of our game were sloppy, and we know we’ve still got loads to improve.

We had a number of fantastic individual performances and will pick out two in particular. Kwame Osigwe who was a rock at the back and Adama Sidibeh who was a constant threat throughout the game.

This victory gives us great confidence going into a busy run of games in January and hopefully we can continue our good form.

TEAMS

Cheadle Town: Latham, Jones, McConnell, McGonigle, Moran, Gregory, Parkinson, Mulgrew, Davin, Murray, Lazenbury
Subs: Unsworth, Usher, Yarwood, McGlynn
Sub Not Used: Hamzat

NOMADS: Piper, Kesete, Shipton, Warren, Cunningham, Osigwe, Lopes, Graham, Sidibeh, Byrnes, Dass
Subs: Whalley, Deering, Haslam, Bickerton, Ibrahim

MAN OF THE MATCH

KWAME OSIGWE

Put his body on the line and defended with great strength and desire.