FC United kicked their first season in division 1 off with a victory. A pretty scrappy peformance saw the reds record a 2-0 victory with goals from Simon Carden and Stuart Rudd notching for the first time.
A crowd that created a superb atmosphere greeted the reds in St Helens in a first half which saw Rudd hit the cross bar plus numerous other chances for the reds including a header just wide by Chadwick. St Helens offered little in the first half, but started the second half the better of the two sides. The second half saw FC struggle to string passes together and the game frustratinglly looked longed for a 0-0 draw. The introduciton of Simon Carden off the subs bench changed that, within about 5 minutes of coming on he did one of his customery bursts from midfield with a cool finish to make it 1-0 to FC. With 3 minutes to go Stuart Ruud broke his duck for the club after missing numerous chances throughout the game with a slid in effort from close range. A 2-0 victory for FC in what was a frustrating match, but a great result to kick off the season.
2 Matty Taylor
3 Alex Mortimer
4 Steve Spencer
5 Dave Chadwick(captain)
6 Rob Nugent
7 Rhodri Giggs
8 William Aherne
9 Stuart Rudd
10 Dave Swarbrick
11 Rory Patterson
Subs Used 12. Liam Coyne 13. Steve Smith 15. Simon Carden Attendance:1723
Scorers Carden 79, Rudd 87