A cold wednesday night was the setting for FC's first game in almost a month, and the fans were well up for it. Before kick off a minutes noise was observed in memory of board member Russ Delaney, a poignent moment as the Red Army chanted his name. With out him the great club that FC has become wouldn't exist.
The match itself kicked off with a bit of a shock, as New Mills capitalised on some bad United defending which resulted in Radford slotting home a cross from the right from close range. 1-0 to New Mills after 1 minute, United didn't mess about in trying to get level, with the inspirational Steve Torpey gliding past defenders with ease. Eventually Torpey's pressure down the left paid of, and on 27 minutes as Torpey broke into the box and played a ball across the goal where Dave Chadwick was on hand to pick up his first goal for the club. New Mills looked rattled, maybe by the mass celebration behind them in the MRE. United's attack built up to another great run by Torpey which he played across goal where Carden slid in to knock home a difficult chance, sending the MRE into a sea of scarf twirling. Two minutes later Carden was on the mark again as he lobbed New Mills keeper in style. 3-1 to FC at half time in what was a great come back. Carden was on his hatrick and within 8 minutes of the restart he'd got it, with a close range finish which half the ground thought the ref had blown for offside or a foul. It wasn't long before Orr was in on the act now he had some competition from Carden for seasons top scorer, 62 minutes saw him make the most of a great through ball with a nicely placed finish. Just when New Mills thought that might of been it for the night on runs Patterson from the bench to terrorise the defence for the last 25 minutes. On 78 minutes a ball was played into Patterson, with his back to goal he pulled off a fantastic turn to leave himself one on one with the keeper where he cooly slotted it into the corner. That was the best of Patterson, then we saw a miss of the year, after beating two players then the keeper, Patterson was left with an easy finish, only for him to hit it over the bar instead of just tucking it away. The final whistle was met by an ecstatic MRE proud of the best performance United had put for a while.
2 Tony Cullen
3 Rob Nugent
4 Steve Spencer
5 Dave Chadwick(captain)
6 David Brown
7 William Aherne
8 Simon Carden
9 Joz Mitten
10 Steve Torpey
11 Adie Orr
Subs:
12 Mark Rawlinson
14 Rory Patterson
15 Billy McCartney
Attendance 2297
Scorers
Chadwick 27, Carden 35, 37, 53, Orr 62, Patterson 78