Sometimes in football you can have greatest players ever in your team, but if the match turns into a good old style battle the quality of players comes down a notch. It comes down to passion and dertimination, thats what FC were up against on Saturday.
Ashton Town were the opponents infront of an ever increasing crowd of 3549 passionate singing reds. United kicked off with most of the chances, Mitten and Torpey coming close forcing the Ashton Town keeper into the first of many great saves on the afternoon. 21 minutes in the deadlock was broken, after once again a great cross was played in by Howard where Adie Orr ghosted in at the near post to slot home. Ashton replied immideatley, when less than a minute later when Crompton found space in the FC area and smashed the ball past George to level the scores. From then on Ashton made it tough for United, giving them no time on the ball and no space to work with. Any chances that United managed to create were saved in style by Ashton's impressive keeper Vickers. The grit and determination shown by Ashton went on well into the second half, and but for a great tip onto the bar from long range effort by Ashton they wouldve been 2-1 up. Leon Mike made an apperance off the bench at half time to try and link up with Orr and find a way to break down the Ashton defence. It was to no avail despite some great touches that played Howard and Orr in, only to be closed down quickly. It was looking like Ashton's resillience was going to pay off for them until 73 minutes came, and that compact area was finally broken through. Some good link up play between Howard,Orr and Torpey managed to get the ball at Torpey's feet one on one with the keeper, he managed to play a shot into the far corner sending the MRE behind the goal mental, as the Team also ran over to celebrate with them. Ashton came close to an equaliser late on, as a shot was hit vicously from outside the area across the face of goal but wide. Their equaliser didn't come, but they deserve great credit for the way they played. Ashton made the game into a great competitive match and made United really work hard to grind the result out.
2 Tony Cullen
3 Kevin Elvin
4 Steve Spencer
5 Billy McCartney
6 David Brown(captain)
7 Josh Howard
8 William Aherne
9 Joz Mitten
10 Steve Torpey
11 Adie Orr
Subs:
12 Chris Simms
14 Leon Mike
15 Tony Coyne
Attendance 3549
Scorers
Orr 21, Torpey 73