The little Lancashire town of Darwen played host to FC this weekend, many of the locals bewildered by the Red Army streaming in to the town as the afternoon rolled towards 3pm. The reds hoping to try and put their cup exit behind them and put another three points on the board. Marginson made a quite a few changes to the lineup with David Brown and William Aherne making their first starts in midfield and Rob Nugent returning at the back.
In a pretty even start to the game Darwen gave as good as they got and manged to force George into a couple of saves whilst United had a few half chances falling to Torpey. The deadloack was broken on 22 minutes a ball not cleared properly ended up at Browns feet on the bounce just inside area, he volleyed it hard and low into the keepers bottom right corner. First goal for the club by Brown and on his first start. After that goal United didn't really create too many other chances with Torpey having alot of the ball and Aherne's work rate second to non as he closed down the Darwen players. 1-0 to the reds at half time, even though maybe the scores deserved to be level.
The second half kicked off with Darwen continuing to frustrate United whenever they got an attack going as they broke up the play well. On 58 minutes Darwen levelled, a shot straight at George which he really shouldve held came back to Zarc who slotted under George to make it 1-1. United tryed to get the lead back straight away as the travelling support spurred them on with their non stop chants. One of which was for Adie Orr, who eventually was brought on, he seemed to be what the Reds were missing. The Darwen defence now struggle with the pace of both Torpey and Orr running at them, thus opening more holes up. United took advantage of this on 76 minutes when Torpey beat his marker on the right, drove forward into the box, crossed along the face of goal for Carden to knock home and make it 2-1. The fans behind the goal were going mental, as it looked as though United were gonna take the spoils. The last ten minutes or so were quite a nervy affair as Darwen pressed hard for an equaliser gaining quie a few corners and troubling George on a few occasions. United manged to hold out though and took away the 3 points to leave them 6 points clear at the top of the pile.
2 Tony Cullen
3 Kevin Elvin
4 Rob Nugent
5 Dave Chadwick(c)
6 David Brown
7 William Aherne
8 Simon Cardon
9 Jonathan Mitten
10 Steve Torpey
11 Steve Spencer
Subs Used
12 Mark Rawlison
13 Adie Orr
14 Darren Lyons
Attendance 1,715
Scorers
Brown 22, Carden 76,