Its never nice to go out of a cup, especially when a potential semi final is up for grabs. FC United went out of the division 2 cup on Saturday with one of the last kicks of 120 minutes of football.
Two minutes into the game Barrie George was possibly lucky to only get a yellow when he pulled Barrets shirt after going past him. The first half was a very lack lustre affair with Nelson looking happy to sit back and see what FC United could come up with to break them down. The answer was, not very much, there was little to threaten Billy Carrington in the Nelson goal other than the odd half chance. The closest United came was on the half hour mark, when Leon Mike curled shot in from outside the area but just clipped the bar.
The second half was more of the same with Nelson defending well and FC just not managing to find that spark in their play. Joz Mitten made an apperance upfront in place of Leon Mike but to no avail as passes continued to miss their target throught the side. With twenty minutes to go it was looking like neither side would score, but Nelson's top scorer Michael Holt had the oppurtunity to when he rounded George fired in a shot from a tight angle, only for his shot to hit the crossbar and bounce down into the six yard box.
So 0-0 at Full Time and what would be extra time followed by a replay if the scores were still level. If you were a betting man you would of banked on a replay as the game looked to be more of what we'd seen in 90 minutes. Though in the first half of extra time Adie Orr had the ball in the back of the net from close range, only for it to be ruled out for offisde.
Two substitutions by Nelson proved pivitol in their winning goal, Jones and Harrison came on and immidiately looked a threat to United in the 2nd half of extra time. While United had a header cleared off the line at one end Jones and Harrison where causing problems at the other.
Their goal came after great play on the left by Jones as he paced past Tony Cullen, played a lofted ball to Harrison unmarked in the area, Harrison controlled before firing a low drive beyond Barrie George. The Nelson team and bench were ecstatic as they had dumped the league leaders out of the cup on their own turf.
It was unfortunate for either side to lose the game in that way but credit to Nelson after losing both league games to FC they put in a workmanlike performance and grounded out a 1-0 victory, good luck to them in the next round.
2 Tony Cullen
3 Kevin Elvin
4 Steve Spencer
5 Billy McCartney
6 David Brown(captain)
7 Josh Howard
8 William Aherne
9 Leon Mike
10 Steve Torpey
11 Adie Orr
Subs:
12 Chris Simms
14 Jonathan Mitten
15 Rob Nugent
Attendance 3007
Scorers