MATCH REPORT

Deeside Stadium, Connah’s Quay, Wales 26th July 2022

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SIX GOAL PRE-SEASON REPEAT AT DEESIDE

Tuesday night saw Connah’s Quay Nomads and Nantwich Town play our a 3-3 draw at Deeside Stadium.

The scoreline was a carbon copy of the pre-season fixture from 2013 when the two sides last met with both games finishing 3-3.

Back in 2013, it was The Nomads who came from behind to draw level and it was the other way around on Tuesday night as The Dabbers clawed back a two goal deficit in the second half to end the game level.

In comparison to Saturday’s starting lineup, there were no trialists with just one on the bench and Michael Wilde returned to the starting eleven to lead the line up front.

It took The Nomads no time at all to take the lead as Harry Franklin scored his second pre-season goal. His first was a somewhat “bundled home” effort against Llandudno, but this one would take some bettering in terms of the quality of the finish. An Aron Williams cross came all the way through to Franklin on the edge of the box who would cut in on to his right foot before sending a fantastic effort in to the top corner to send The Nomads ahead. over the bar and Nantwich had a chance of their own as AJ Leitch-Smith found space and sent a cross flashing across the face of The Nomads’ goal, but in the 20th minute, The Nomads would double our lead as Aron Williams broke down the right wing and whipped a ball in - Aeron Edwards got to the ball first and his effort deflected off Jon Moran to squirm past Louis Gray in the Nantwich goal.

The Nomads had a number of chances to extend our lead with Harry Franklin unleashing an effort from the edge of the box before providing a cross for Michael Wilde to head wide. Nantwich would grow into the half and in the 34th minute Joe Robbins sent a great strike goalwards only to see Andy Firth tip the effort over his bar.

Firth was unable to keep The Dabbers at bay in the 43th minute however as a neat bit of play from Nantwich found Sean Cooke free inside the box who finished low to make the score 2-1. It looked as though the score would be 2-1 at half time, but this changed as Mike Wilde intercepted a loose pass across the Nantwich back line and slipped in Aron Williams who got past his marker and thundered a strike past Louis Gray to score his third goal of pre-season having already scored against Llandudno and Colwyn Bay.

Nantwich would start the second half well however and following some good play down the right from Joel Stair his cross was inadvertantly sent past Andy Firth by Danny Holmes as he attempted to intercept the cross.

Just five minutes later and Sean Cooke nearly very cheekily doubled his record as he attempted a quickly dinked free kick from distance only to see Andy Firth tip the ball over as he backpedalled.

Cooke would again challenge Firth, this time with a low drive and again Firth would push the effort around his post, but from the resulting corner kick, Dan Cockerline would rise highest in the box to head Nantwich level.

The Nomads would have one final chance with just five minutes to go as Josh Williams was brought down on the edge of the box - from the resulting free kick, Ryan Harrington would send a low drive goalbound - Louis Gray would stop the shot but it fell loose inside the box and a scramble saw a Nomads trialist hit his close range effort over the bar in what would be the last goalmouth action of the game.