Ambitious Davies Backs Young Nomads Outfit to Impress

Jake Davies has been impressed with how his Cheadle Heath Nomads players reacted to a difficult start to the season, but believes his young side still have more to give.

Credit: Cheadle Heath Nomads

Bouncing Back in Style

After waiting so long for competitive football to return, Nomads suffered a stumbling start to the campaign, losing their first two fixtures of the North West Counties Football League Division One South season.

Losing their first three matches, whilst conceding 11 goals in the process, Nomads began the 2021/22 campaign in frustrating fashion, but Davies has been keen to convey the same messages to his fledgling team:

“We played okay in those games, but we are a very young group and we lacked a bit of experience in the moments that mattered”

“The messages have always been the same, especially this early on in the season. The morale has been good, it’s just about now adding that clinical and ruthless edge to our game”.

Bouncing back in style, Nomads had no problem in displaying the clinical edge Davies asked about in their next trio of fixtures, taking five points from a possible nine.

First Win Crucial for Confidence

Trailing by two goals after 30-minutes in their recent visit against Stockport Town, it looked as if it was going to be another long evening for Davies’ Nomads team.

Scoring three without return, including a brace either side of half-time from Daniel McLaughlin, the side from Cheadle Heath turned the game on its head to win their first match of the season:

“If you’re going to choose to win a game in a certain way, you’d choose to do it like that because it brings about so much more confidence to the lads”.

Speaking about the feeling amongst the camp following their dramatic victory, Davies was impressed with the character his squad were able to display:

“The lads showed a lot of desire and intensity to their play to get them back into the game. You learn a lot more about your team in the tough moments and I thought we dealt with that match really well”.

“Time to Push On” Says Davies

Credit: Cheadle Heath Nomads

Not satisfied with making up the numbers in a competitive division, Davies has urged his side to push on from their recent run of results and make an impact in the NWCFL Division One South:

“Our expectations have remained the same, we want to be competitive and finish as close to those top-five positions as we can and we have now given ourselves the platform to do that”.

Having worked as a coach at clubs in and around the same division as Nomads, Davies understands what it takes to be successful at this level:

“The way it is in this league is you pick up a run of three or four wins and you’re back in the mix again. It may be a cliché in itself, but we just have to be a little more consistent”.

Nomads Have Manager with Ambition to Match

After Andy Gray stepped down as Nomads boss in the autumn of 2020, the club turned to then 24-year-old Davies to take over the reins, with the view to pushing for promotion in the years to come.

Yet another non-league manager who has had to endure the stop-start nature of playing football in a pandemic, the now 25-year-old is excited to finally get going properly in his role:

“Nomads are a progressive club with ambitions of making it out of this division in the near future and my job is to provide those results”.

It hasn’t taken Davies long to truly understand the ethos of the club either. Whether its turning up to training sessions early to watch the under-18 squad in action, or sticking around after matches to discuss the team’s performances with fans over a pint in the clubhouse, the Nomads boss has been quick to impress at the Cheadle Heath outfit:

“I spend a lot of time here and I especially spent a lot of time here when it wasn’t going too well, because I’m quite determined to make sure the project works”.

Davies and Nomads continue their assault on the NWCFL Division One South when they host Rocester, before finishing the month off with a mouth-watering local derby against Cheadle Town.