A beautiful sunny day was the setting for FC Uniteds new begining at theyre new home, stark contrast to last weeks monsoon in staffordshire. The Manchester Road end of Gigg Lane seems to be the new Stretford End, as most fans decided to pile in there and start their 90 minutes of singing as weve done for the last few weeks. United kicked off the match in their usual bright attacking fashion going close with headers from Nugent and Joz Mitten, also with new signing Chadwick not afraid to get up there too. The first goal came when the lively Patterson was caught between two defenders in the box and bundled to the ground. He dispatched the penalty cool as you like chiping it down the middle of the goal into the roof of the net. Padiham who had been mostly defending hit back straight away, capitalising on some slack marking by the reds leaving Hill to slide in with the equaliser. United took the lead in some style just before half time. After some great work by Joz Mitten on the right he played it into Orr on the edge of the area who did a great turn to play the ball into Patterson who slotted it right in the bottom right corner. The second half saw more of the same from United and could been more goals with Coyne missing from close range and Joz Mitten having a few efforts go close. United put the game to bed when Adie Orr manged to prod home his second of the season after a bit of a scramble in the box. Padiham made the final score 3-2 when Chadwick stroked home in injury but nothing more than a consolation as United made it back to back wins and secured a top of the table place, all be it on goal difference.
2 Kevin Elvin
3 Gareth Ormes
4 Steve Spencer
5 Dave Chadwick(c)
6 Rob Nugent
7 Mark Rawlinson
8 Tony Coyne
9 Jonathan Mitten
10 Rory Patterson
11 Adie Orr
Subs Used
12 William Ahern (for 11, 78 min)
13 Ryan Gilligan (for 4, 82 min)
14 Scott Holt (for 7, 66 min)
Attendance 2,498
Scorers
Patterson 27(pen), 45 Orr 69