As Karl Marginson said in his program notes, the fantastic performance against Winsford on Monday would count for nothing unless they put in the same performance against Darwen. The shirts didn't dissapoint as they kicked off the game looking as though they'd just ran straight into the Winsford game again. United putting pressure on Darwen through the pressure of Torpey, Patterson, Orr and Howard. Their close ball control was too much for the Darwen defence as they made run after run at them. The Darwen defence was breached on 22 minutes when the impressive Howard took it round the Darwen left back and crossed along the six yard box where there was only ever gonna be one man to knock it home, Simon Carden. The remainder of the first half saw more United pressure and few and far between ones for Darwen, 1-0 at half time.
The second half started with Darwen's tiredness setting in and more mistakes started to be made by them. The pressence of Orr upfront and his willingness to not stop running for lost causes was inspirational. That willingness paid off on 56 minutes when Darwen's keeper came out of his area near the left corner flag, Orr had no right to get to the ball first but he came running in and with a lunging slide managed to get a nick on the ball that deflected to Howard. Howard was just inside the Darwen half and with the MRE screaming for him to shoot as the goal was empty, he tried his luck he sent a shot high into the sky that dipped under the crossbar leaving defenders who had got back no chance, Beckham eat your heart out :-) From that it looked as though the flood gates may have opened but a few wayward efforts by Patterson and some resolute Darwen defending made the final score
2-0. The only bad point to the game was when Carden got clattered and sent to the ground, forcing him to go off. It looks as though he may have a ligament injury and could be out for two weeks or more.
2 Rob Nugent
3 Kevin Elvin
4 Steve Spencer
5 Billy McCartney
6 David Brown(captain)
7 Josh Howard
8 Simon Carden
9 Rory Patterson
10 Steve Torpey
11 Adie Orr
Subs:
12 Chris Simms
14 William Aherne
15 Phil Power
Attendance 3371
Scorers
Carden 22, Howard 56,