FC Stanley of Accrington was the chant being sang on Monday night, as FC's latest game saw us back up in Accrington for the fourth time this season. Due to the cancellation of the last attempt at this game against Great Harwood, it was moved to a Monday night. The weather looked as though it would put pay to this game also, as the wind, rain, sleet and snow poured down on the interlink stadium. A much more reduced Red Army arrived for this one due to it being a Monday night and it being akward for alot of people to get there. This didn't stop a hardcore bunch from gathering behind the nets in the rain and snow to support the lads. In difficult playing conditions United were in their white away shirts, it didn't take long before these shirts were a greenish brown colour. United made the most of their early possesion with a number of early attacks, Patterson and Orr looking lively down the flanks. On 10 minutes Harwood commited the first of many bad challenges, resulting in a penalty that Patterson duly side footed home for his 14th of the season. 1-0 to FC, but soon after it was Adie Orr who lunged in on the Harwood keeper outside his area, some would say he might of been sent off on another day. Due to the by now boggy pitch play was very stop start and scrappy till half time. The second half started what looked like a one man effort by the referee to get Harwood an equaliser as he gave them decision after decision for nothing. Harwood also used their new found found friend in the referee to their advantage as they got away with reckless challenges on numerous occasions. It was as if they thought, well if we can't beat them with our football we'll just kick em off the pitch. There were chances for FC to wrap up the game as Torpey managed to skip through Harwoods challenges but couldn't get a good hold of his shots in the conditions. There was also a contender for miss of the season after a ball played across the face of goal to Patterson left him with an open net, only for him to find the back of the stand. The refs constant assistance to Harwood's cause paid off on 76 minutes after a corner was played into the near post where Cliff was on hand to head into the top corner and level the match. United put on Leon Mike to try and grab a winner with 10 minutes to go, but to no avail and cold wet night in Accrington ended with the points shared.
2 Rob Nugent
3 Gareth Ormes
4 Chris Simms
5 Billy McCartney
6 David Chadwick(c)
7 Josh Howard
8 William Aherne
9 Simon Band
10 Steve Torpey
11 Rory Patterson
Subs Used
12 Darren Lyons
13 Phil Power
14 David Brown
Attendance 1028
Scorers
Patterson 10 (Pen)