LILYWHITES VISIT DEESIDE IN FULL BLOOM FOR THE HUWS GRAY ALLIANCE MATCH OF THE WEEKEND:-Nomads, with top scorer Gary O'Toole and star mid-fielder 'Tigger' Jones both suspended, face a Rhyl side who are on the crest of a wave after their stunning victory at Neath in the Welsh Cup.
Rhyl, 4th in the league, visit Deeside Stadium on Saturday to take on 2nd place Nomads in what is undoubtedly the HGA league's match of the weekend. Expect Rhyl to arrive in a confident frame of mind after scoring 5 goals in each of their previous 2 league matches and capping those performances with their splendid Welsh Cup victory at Neath. Rhyl had an indifferent start to the season by their standards, having only won 4, drawn 2 and lost 1 of their first 7 games, but with key players now recovered from injury and only Stuart Rudd a doubtful starter, they will no doubt be coming to Deeside looking for a positive result.
Nomads couldn't have made a better start to the season. With 7 league victories on the trot and scoring lots of goals we were the team to beat, but thats exactly what Cefn Druids did in emphatic style, with a 5-1 victory. Since that game, we have showed our resilience by battling to narrow victories at home against Llandudno in the league and Porth after extra-time in the Welsh Cup. Loss of top scorer Gary O'Toole and star mid-fielder 'Tigger' Jones, suspended after red cards, couldn't have come at a worse time for Nomads, but the squad has enough quality in depth to compensate for their absence. Our battling qualities alone though, may well not be enough against Rhyl. The Nomads team will need to playing at their very best to win this one and it would be nice to see evidence of the early season confident footballing swagger return to the Nomads game.
From Home of the Nomads website:-
13/11/10: FROM THE GAFFER - Rhyl
Good afternoon everybody. I would like to give a welcome to Greg Strong, my friend Gareth Owen, and all from Rhyl for today’s big league clash on Deeside.
Rhyl have been on a good run over the last few games to put themselves back in the mixer at the top of the table, and they will come here today full of confidence after knocking Neath out of the Welsh Cup last weekend.
The top four at the moment unsurprisingly consists of four of the six demoted Welsh Premier sides in what is proving to be a very exciting season. We all know just how strong a team Rhyl are – they will definitely be up there come the end of the season so taking the points from them today would be a very pleasing result for us.
This is a massive game for both sides because, although the outcome this afternoon will have no bearing on where the league title will end up, it should almost certainly give the winners an advantage until we meet again.
I know that our players will be ready for the test today and I know that we will be doing everything we can to win the game, as we did last weekend against AFC Porth when we pulled a very late victory out of the bag.
That proved to the kind of entertaining Cup tie that every supporter likes to see, full of goals and incidents. I would have preferred a 1-0 win, but when you are trailing by two goals with less than ten minutes left and you come back to force extra time and win, it gives you a big boost – something that we needed ahead of today’s game.
Our strikers Hazie and Gary both kept up their scoring run, which is naturally pleasing, but also the likes of Andy Alston and Ben Collins continue to chip in and that is something we lacked last year. If we can return to keeping clean sheets I would be much happier.
The fourth round draw pits us away to Carmarthen, which is a tough test but the spirit is good and we will be looking to avenge our own upset at Afan Lido last year. That’s not until January, though, so we can put that to bed for now and focus on league matters, starting today.
Rhyl have the best defence in the league whilst we have the best attack, so this could be a very good game and I hope we can better last season’s record against them. Tigger and Gary are both missing, but I am confident that I have a strong squad at my disposal and it opens a window for others to come in and stake their claim.
COME ON YOU NOMADS!
Macca
