Playing at Altrincham's Moss Lane ground due to Gigg Lane being used for a beer festival(you wouldve thought we'd go hand in hand?) FC United were back in action after the great weekend just gone. The opponents today were 15th placed Holker Old boys, who FC had already beat this season up in Barrow.
United lined up with Power upfront after impressing when coming on against Blackpool Mechs, he was alongside Patterson, while Band had an arm injury.
Holker started the game brightly and were afraid to go forward, but seemed to lack that killer instinct ain the final third, an also spurrned a few close range free kicks. United created a few half chances early on that fell to Power and Patterson, but were crowded out before they could shoot properly. It wasn't until the last minute of the first half that the dead lock was broken. The on form Josh Howard was the man on target for United as struck a shot hard and low right into the left hand corner of the net, 1-0 to the reds at half time.
Holker started the second half in much the same way as the first, battling for every ball and creating some good chances. They got their reward on 60 minutes when Swarbrick was left in space in the area and George was left in no mans land, leaving him all the room in the world to hammer home and make it 1-1. It was a deserved equaliser, but it lasted under a minute, as Unitedwent right up the other end and after a scrappy goal mouth scrammble Chris Simms had the easy chance of knocking in to make it 2-1 and gain his first for the club. A pretty cruel blow for Holker who now looked disheartend, meanwhile United looked hungry for league victory number 7 in a row. The points were safe on 80 minutes when another bit of indesicion in Holker's defence left Ahern with a close range finish to make it 3-1 and get his second goal in two games. United claimed another to make the result a flattering 4-1 scoreline after Patterson was played in on the right and left with a clear run on goal which he finished in style with a cooly placed shot. Holker battled well and gave a good performance but it wasn't enough and United gained another 3 points nearer to that elusive title.
2 Rob Nugent
3 Gareth Ormes
4 Chris Simms
5 David Chadwick(captain)
6 Billy McCartney
7 Josh Howard
8 Steve Torpey
9 William Aherne
10 Phil Power
11 Rory Patterson
Subs:
12 Adie Orr
14 David Brown
15 Darren Lyons
Attendance 3159
Scorers
Howard 44, Simms 61, Ahern 80, Patterson 88