Second Half fight back as Isle of Man go top

Cheadle Heath Nomads first trip to the Isle of Man ended in defeat and sent the hosts top of the North West Counties First Division South.

A late kick off, watched live in the Nomads Club House by a big crowd started fantastically for the visitors. Jordan Milne brought the ball down well, took a touch and smashed the it into the top corner to silence the big home crowd.

Nomads played some good football in the first half and deservedly went in at half time with a 1-0 lead – Foley and Alley impressing for the visitors.

HT: FC Isle of Man 0 NOMADS 1

FC Isle of Man had to change things and they certainly did playing with a much quicker tempo. On 55 minutes they were level. A corner swung in was headed home by Murray from close range.

Nomads nearly restored their lead immediately, Kyle Foley going close.

The home side seemed to find an extra gear, some great defending keeping the scores level. It was an error that gifted the home side the lead, Simpson seizing on the mistake to make it 2-1.

Both sides continued to press for the all important fourth goal. On 76 minutes great work in the box from Kyle Foley drew the foul and gave Nomads the opportunity to draw level. Top scorer McLaughlin stepped up but saw his penalty saved low down by Isle of Man keeper Quirk.

The fourth goal did come, in the final minute another Simpson corner and another close range header by Murray sealed the three points.

FT: FC Isle of Man 3 NOMADS 1

After the game we got the thoughts of Manager Jake Davies:

“Saturday all be it a disappointing result and a frustrating one doesn’t particularly say the picture and pattern of the game. I think Isle of Man would say that 3-1 flatters them.

For the first 45 minutes we played arguably the best half of football we’ve played all season, we controlled every aspect of the game. The pattern of the game is exactly what we looked for, controlled the turnovers, we locked attacks in when required and imposed a real pace, fluidity and urgency in our game. Without the ball we were very quick to the ball and high up the pitch as we knew we had to stop them hitting their direct balls as much as we could. The goal we scored was quality, and the only disappointing thing coming into half time was we weren’t at least 2 or 3 up and that’s what has cost us.

2nd half to be fair to the Isle of Man they come out very aggressively and shut us down earlier and with this we turned the ball over too much and rather than playing onto our forwards we played over them giving them the ball back, then not having enough bodies close enough to immediately press them, the pattern of the game changed and they’ve won more set pieces as they were closer to our box. You can complain about the lads conceding from 2 corners but our game plan was to defend away from our box as much as possible as we knew this would be where we were hurt, as soon as we gave these situations away we knew they’d get some joy at some point.

Every team goes through moments but from going 2-1 down we were then the team in the ascendancy creating chances again and winning a penalty. Big moments change games and I throughly believe if we score that and go 2-2 we get something from the game and could be the team that goes on to win the game given the time left on the clock.

I’ll never gripe about a player missing a penalty, especially not given the performance Danny McLaughlin put in, it was his best performance for a long time. His hold up play, link play with Jordan, Kyle and Kieran was outstanding. Defensively he left everything out there and he’s just unfortunate not to score on the night, the keeper has made a superb save.

It was a great experience and we have shown what Nomads are about, our DNA, culture and identity was there for everyone to see. Well done to the Isle of Man on the win, they had to work hard for it that’s for sure. Sometimes in football you don’t always get what you deserve. We’ll just keep plugging away and look to put it right in the next game.”

Image from FC Isle of Man twitter

TEAMS

FC Isle of Man: Quirk, Caine, Burns, Baines, Maitland, Quaye, Holden, Bass, Doyle, Murray, Simpson.
Subs: Davies, Mealin, Cooil. Not Used: Avery, Andrews

NOMADS: Willan, Wright, Shipton, O’Connell, Greenfield, Horner, Alley, Tinkler, McLaughlin, Foley, Milne.
Subs: Blackwell, Wallis Unused: Taylor, Coates, Howarth