Nomads hoping for a bit of history repeating in the Junior Cup

There will be a real sense of ‘deja vu’ at Sixfields next Thursday night (May 5).
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The Les Underwood NFA Junior Cup final will be played out between Chromasport Northants Combination Premier Division rivals Kettering Nomads and Blisworth.

It will be a repeat of the last final of the competition in 2019 when Nomads clinched a 2-0 win to lift the silverware.

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They remain the holders with the Covid-19 pandemic ensuring the competition wasn’t completed in 2020 or last year.

Kettering Nomads will be hoping for similar scenes to these ones in 2019 when they play Blisworth in the NFA Junior Cup final next weekKettering Nomads will be hoping for similar scenes to these ones in 2019 when they play Blisworth in the NFA Junior Cup final next week
Kettering Nomads will be hoping for similar scenes to these ones in 2019 when they play Blisworth in the NFA Junior Cup final next week

The final looks set to be closely contested with Blisworth second in the league and Nomads third while the former got the better of things in a dress rehearsal last weekend when they triumphed 2-1.

Before that game, Nomads had been on an excellent run of six wins in a row without conceding a goal.

But all eyes are now turning towards next week’s showpiece and Nomads will be hoping for a similar outcome to their last trip to Sixfields.

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“That’s what we’re hoping for but things have changed since then,” Nomads player-manager Tom Judge said.

“We are the holders but it was three years ago now and certainly the Blisworth squad has changed massively since that time and we have probably got five or six new faces as well.

“We have had a good season. If you had said we would be likely to finish third then, especially after a rough run around October and November, I would have snapped your hand off.

“I think we are a title-challenging side but we had a bad start and never really recovered from it.

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“I am really pleased with how we have finished the league season and hopefully we can top it off next week.”

Judge took over as manager earlier in the campaign and drafted in Joe Rich as his assistant while he continues to have a role to play on the pitch.

“Carl Holmes started the season as manager and I said in August that I would step up to be the player-assistant manager,” Judge added.

“Unfortunately, he had an issue with his health and decided to step back. I agreed to take it on and I was lucky enough to bring in Joe and he has been a great help since he came on board.”

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