Who wouldve thought, less than a year of being in existence, FC United would end their season playing over in Germany. Well its what happened as FC made their first venture abroad in their very short history to play against Lokomotive Leipzig.
A crowd of 7,462 turned out at the Bruno-Plache-Stadion, with atleast 500 of those being United fans who'd made the journey.
FC took a shock early lead through a scrappy goal by dave swarbrick, which silenced the Leipzig fans and sent FC's fans into raptures. LOK came straight back though and were given the chance to level from the penalty spot after a dubious decision. A complete turnaround in the match was complete straight after when Melville failed to claim a loose ball leaving Leipzig the chance to put themselves 2-1 up. FC managed to level affairs again through a great header from Rob Nugent, but went in at half time 3-2 behind after an incicive Leipzig counter attack. A very unfortunate scoreline for FC as they had been far the better team and also had a blatant penalty claim turned down.
FC continued theyre great attacking play in the second half with Torpey absolutely running rings round the Leipzig defence, and he was denied two stone wall penalties after being felled in the box. FC did evetually get a penalty at the fourth time of asking, which Patterson duly despatched. It was party time in the FC end with 15 minutes to go as the game was turned on its head again, Simon Carden scored from close range to put United 4-3 up and look good for the win. It wasn't to be though as with very little time left on the clock poor clearances by both FC defence and keeper left Leipzig with an easy tap in to tie the game again at 4-4. A fantastic match was followed by a great evening to, as United fans and Leipzig fans sang and drunk together throughout the city to celebrate the next stage in our on going revolution of fans football
2 Rob Nugent
3 Tony Cullen
4 Steve Spencer
5 Dave Chadwick(captain)
6 David Brown
7 Josh Howard
8 Simon Carden
9 Dave Swarbrick
10 Steve Torpey
11 Rory Patterson
Subs Used
12 Kevin Elvin
13 Adie Orr
14 Will Ahern
15 Jozz Mitten
16 Mike O'Neill
Attendance 7462
Scorers
Swarbrick, Nugent, Patterson(pen), Carden