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.
Sunday saw FC back in Accrington the scene of the frantic final minutes of their Division Trophy exit. Where Patterson saw red from the bench, Torpey scored what looked like the last gasp equaliser and heart break when it proved not to be. Well Torpey seems to like this neck of the woods.
Today Nelson were the opponents, beaten 5-0 by FC at Gigg Lane in October and no doubt looking to avenge that defeat.
Nelson made the first attack of the game which petered out into a comfortable save for George. The first venture forward for FC saw them take the lead on 3 minutes, after good work on the right from Howard, he played a ball across the face of goal where Joz Mitten was on hand to slide home. United were domminant from then on with chances coming from Mitten, Orr and Torpey. On 27 minutes one such chance was taken in style by Torpey, the ball bounced out to him just inside the box where he smashed it on the half volley into the top left hand corner. A superb strike which was only bettered on the stroke of half time, when a free kick was won on right hand edge of the area. Torpey continued his great record from free kicks with probabbly the best yet, he lashed a shot as much in the top left hand corner as it could with such power that if you'd blinked you wouldve missed it. Nelson are doing DVD of the game, I think some may buy it just to see that goal again.
3-0 to FC and they were playing in style, the second half was a lesser spectacle to the first half goal competition. Although the travelling red army found their voice better than the first, and caught a few glimpses of the womans football match being played behind the ground. On 63 minutes Nelson managed to get a conselation goal from the penalty spot, but that was all it was. 3-1 the final score in another great performance by United.
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.
As time for FC has gone on the ends of Gigg Lane have got fuller and fuller. The MRE being first and then moving on to the Main stand before Monday saw the Cemetry end gain a substantial ammount. It was all part of the unbelievable 4,328 fans that turned out in support of the six month old club, in probabblly their most important fixture yet. Winsford United, FC's nearest challengers for the league title.
United's lineup was missing one big part at kick off as Dave Chadwick was out of action due to a broken toe. Meanwhile upfront Leon Mike joined Adie Orr to make his first apperance for the club.
United started the match well with Josh Howard making some great runs down the right and Mike and Orr with some good link up play that resulted in Mike firing over from close range. In what was a high tempo first half with end to end action Winsford gave as good as they got and George was called into action on a few occasions. United shouldve took the lead half way through the first half as a pass from from Howard on the right touch line was put away by Orr, but was strangely rulled out for offside. So after a frantic first half the sides went in level at 0-0.
The second half started and the pace of the game wasn't slowing down at all. Winsford were ecstatic on 51 minutes as George failed to claim a shot near the edge of the area which left Arnold the opportunity to lift it over FC's despairing keeper and put Winsford 1-0 up. This seemed to spur the already noisey crowd on to even more singing and passion, willining FC forward to get the equaliser. They didn't have to wait too long as on 64 minutes who other than Simon Carden was there again to slide home from close range to net his 17th goal of the season and send Gigg Lane into a frenzy of scalf twirlling and singing. This seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of Winsford and they were penned in for much of the time after, even adopting time wasting tactics as they looked to slow down the FC attacks. Winsford were mad to pay for these tactics on 83 minutes as substitute Patterson latched onto poor kick out by Winsford's keeper, which he struck on the bounce viciously into the keeper's right. The MRE behind the goal were ecstatic and Patterson climbed over the advertisment boards to join them. The remainder of the game saw United create a couple of chances to make it 3-1, but 2-1 it finished. A superb result against FC's nearest rivals that opened up a 14 point gap between the sides. And watched by the biggest attendance so far, not a bad start to 2006 you could say :-)