Posted by ChrisB on November 10, 2007, 5:22 pm
After 75 days on the road the Nomads finally returned home and tied the horses to the rails before taking on North Leigh Reserves in the Intermediate Cup at the early hour of 2.00 p.m. (the reason for the meagre turnout?). With four away on County duty and other calls from an injury-hit 1st XI there were several new faces in the side facing their equally young-looking opponents.
The visitors pressed at the start but the greater experience in the City side soon began to tell and Ian Roper put them ahead on 6 minutes with a strike that took a slight deflection before evading the North Leigh keeper.
City had most of the match in the next 20 minutes or so and looked to be about to go further ahead on three or four occasions but the final touches just eluded them. The visitors came close with two corners, and a shot a foot the wrong side of the post just before a break from Ben Moses was brought to an abrupt halt on the edge of the North Leigh area and he picked out the top corner with his free-kick to double the lead on 30 minutes.
With a gusty wind the high balls played upfield by both sides were causing few difficulties and it was when City kept the ball on the ground they looked at their most dangerous. A great through-ball from Jack Griffiths almost released Roper on 35 minutes but a good covering tackle stopped his run before, three minutes later, a deep corner from Lee Rendell found Griffiths beyond the far post and his low cross into the six-yard box was neatly flicked home by Roper with his back to the goal.
The second half very much followed the pattern of the first with the home side having the majority of the play without ever really putting a lot of pressure on the North Leigh keeper.
The fourth goal came eight minutes into the half after the ball had been held up well on the City right and Lee Rendell curled in a left-footed centre that evaded both Moses' head and the keeper's punch and dipped beneath the bar and into the net.
The visitors had some concerted pressure over the next ten minutes and Brett Freeman in goal dealt well with what came his way, though he could only watch as the North Leigh No. 12 crashed one shot against the bar; and Ben Moses, covering a lot of ground all afternoon, cleared off his own line a few minutes later.
City's approach work promised more to come but, as in the first period, solid tackling from the visitors and errant final balls left the score at 4-0 taking City Nomads through to play the winners of the Clanfield v Newtown(Henley) tie at the start of December.
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