Also Wednesday saw Rory Patterson and William Ahern make apperances for Grmisby's reserves side in a trial match with a view to them possibly signing for Grimsby. But as of now both are still FC players.
Ive gotta ticket to Hyde, thats the song started at the season, low and behold we ended up playing there to. A match against New Mills, previous meetings were ones to forget for the Millers, 6-1 in the league and 5-0 in the cup.
The match kicked off with New Mills looking to show they were better than previous scorelines suggested. For the first 20 minutes they domminated possesion but lacked that killer ball when in the final third.
FC took the lead though on 22 minutes when Joz Mitten unleashed a turn and strike hard and low into the bottom right corner, he did well to get the shot after some close marking on him in the area. From then on FC had got there fluent passing game together and looked much like making it 2-0. That second goal game on 42 minutes courtesy of Patterson, nodding in a cross from the right into the bottom left corner clinically.
The second half saw United contain efforts by New Mills to get back into the game well. 15 minutes in to the 2nd half saw Patterson sent off for his second yellow of the game. His crime, putting his shirt over his head in frustration at a decision, an unbelivable sending off by a referee who obviously must be a big fan of graham poll. Despite being down to ten men FC kept New Mills at bay for the remaing 30 minutes and even had chances to make it 3-0 with chances created by subs Daz Lyons and Simon Carden.
2-0 it finished and takes the points total to 74, that league title could only be a couple of wins away.
Wednesday night saw FC make an apperance at Boundary Park to take on Oldham Town. Many say the ground is the coldest around no matter what the weathers like, anyone who went will know why they say it.
FC with a much simmilar lineup to the one that beat Leek 8-1 on saturday, Phil Melville continuing in goal and Dave Swarbrick looking to follow on from his impressive first start for the club. The first half created little in the form of goal mouth action, Oldham making it hard to get past United and were very good at keeping possesion. Its a wonder they aren't alot higher in the league as Oldham played the ball around nicely but struggled to find that killer touch around the area. A first half to forget really as Power and Patterson were kept very quite upfront and Torpey couldn't manage much with his trade mark bursts forward.
The second half was looking much the same, other than some probing runs forward by Swarbrick that created a couple of half chances for Power. It took until 58 minutes for the dead lock to be broken, as Chadwick scored the type of goal that summed up the match. The ball was was played in from the right, which found Chadwick who got his knee to the ball to send it looping torwards the roof of the net, taking a couple of deflections off Oldham defenders on the way.
The main highlights of the rest of the match involved a constant battle between Phil Power and Oldham's number 6 with niggling kicks and nudges all the way till Power's substitution. There was a chance to secure the points late on when Patterson burst clear past 2 challenges along the touch line into the box, a square pass to Joz Mitten wouldve made it 2-0, but he decided to go alone, only to hammer it over the bar. It stayed 1-0 till the end, with little in the way of Oldham looking like equalising despite some good possesion play.
Not the greatest spectacle ever, but a great result for FC which puts them 24 points clear at the top of the league.
Back in the days of August FC played their first ever competetive game against Leek CSOB, a step into the unknown which after many twists and turns ended in a 5-2 victory. Saturday saw Leek arrive at Gigg Lane sitting second bottom of the league, after struggling since that first game of the season.
After the defeat to Flixton on Wednesday, Marginson made changes to the starting lineup, with Melville coming in, in goal, Phil Power, Steve Spencer, Dave Brown, and also Dave Swarbrick making his first start for the club.
United new look lineup took little time to get going and on 4 minutes it was Phil Power who had the chance to knock home from close range from a Torpey cross. Within 8 minutes United's dominance made it 2-0 when a Torpey corner was head across goal to Patterson who had an easy header. It was FC's 100th competitive goal of the season. Patterson was on hand again to make it 3-0 on 19 minutes as good work by Ahern lead to the ball bouncing for Patterson to leave him with a tap in from close range. Things got even worse on 22 minutes for Leek as a good pass by Power found Torpey just outside the area, he carried the ball towards goal before cooly slotting under Leek keeper James hall to make it 4-0. Leek managed to gain a bit of pride back on 35 minutes all be it from a bit of comedy between Melville and Chadwick. Melville went to clear a ball but it only resulted in hitting Chadwick right in the face before bouncing back behind Melville, leaving Bradbury with and empty net to make it 4-1. That bit of pride didn't last long as almost immediately after the impressive Swarbrick on his debut played an accurate through ball to leave Power in on goal and make it 5-1! at half time.
United were really on form, and even better oposition would struggle with them playing like this. The second half saw debut man Dave Swarbrick get a deserved goal after a neat one two with sub Joz Mitten before cannoning the ball in off the left hand post, before saluting the MRE, 6-1 to FC. Leek to there credit did keep the score down till the last ten, but did little to threaten at the other end. On 83 minutes Leek's defence was broken again, this time with Patterson's hatrick goal and the best goal of the game. A United corner was cleared, it fell to Dave Brown who laid it off for Patterson who was 30 yards from goal, he unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot that was in the net before you could blink an eye 7-1. Leek's misery was finnaly completed on 87 minutes when Chris Simms picked up the pieces on a Daz Lyon's shot that hit the post leaving him with a close range finish from the rebound.
Final score 8-1 to the reds and a great way to come back after the disapointing performance against Flixton.
FC UNITED'S march to the Moore and Co Solicitors League second division title was temporarily halted at Gigg Lane as Flixton ended their 18-match unbeaten run.
And the red rebels could have few complaints about their 2-1 defeat in front of a crowd of 1,924.
Graham Vaughan gave Flixton a deserved 36th minute lead when he curled in a shot from the edge of the box and there was further heartache for FC United as Lee Wilkinson made it 2-0 early in the second-half.
Skipper Dave Chadwick pulled one back for the hosts four minutes from time, but the visitors held on in a frantic finish.