| FCUoM 3 - 0 St Helens
F.C. United of Manchester recorded their second
3-0 victory within five days following this comfortable league win against
St. Helens Town F.C. at Gigg Lane, Bury on Wednesday night
Town, who have endured a troubled season thus far with a change of manager
and just one league win to their name, lined-up with an almost completely
different side from the one that faced the Reds on the opening day of
the league campaign, with Adie Reilly at right-back, the only survivor.
F.C. United welcomed (in place of the injured David Chadwick) the return
of Dave Brown at centre-back after his brief period away at Salford City
F.C., with Rory Patterson taking over the captain’s armband, and
on the substitutes’ bench they had 18 year old Nick Platt (no –
not Gail’s son in Coronation Street!), an attacking midfield player
who was once in Liverpool FC’s academy and has also been in Burnley
FC's youth system and has had experience at Turf Moor at reserve team
level.
The noisy if sparse Gigg Lane faithful (the home crowd of 1,851 was the
second lowest of the season) didn’t have long to wait for the opening
goal, which came after just six and a half minutes. A Josh Howard pass
found Rory Patterson, and the No. 11 expertly drew the St. Helens’
‘keeper, before passing the ball to the unmarked SIMON CARDEN who
had the simplest of tasks of walking the ball into the unguarded net.
On 18 minutes, and it was 2-0, when Josh Howard’s pinpoint free-kick
from the far left hand side found STUART RUDD, who out-jumped the St.
Helens’ defence to head the ball home from close range.
And on 25 minutes, it was 3-0, when Josh Howard’s corner-kick foundDAVE
BROWN at the back-post, to nod the ball home from just two yards out.
At this early stage of the game, the match seemed to be virtually all
over as a contest, at stages almost resembling a training ground game,
and only some fine goalkeeping by visiting ‘keeper Mark Nicolson
was keeping the score respectable, the St. Helens’ custodian saving
first from a Rhodri Giggs header with a fine finger-tip save, and then
with his legs from Stuart Rudd on 31 minutes.
The second half saw the visitors adopt a flat back four, as they tried,
with some success, to adopt a damage limitation policy by frustrating
F.C. United attacking runs which they achieved by the simple expedient
of repeatedly catching the home forwards offside.
Rory Patterson had the ball in the net in the opening minute of the second
half, but was flagged for offside, and on 69 minutes, Rhodri Giggs also
had the ball in the net but the “goal” was again chalked off
by the ever-vigilant stand-side linesman.
The introduction of St. Helens’ substitute Scott Walker for MattHowgate
for the final half-hour offered the visitors a genuine attacking outlet
for the first time in the game, with Walker shooting just wide within
minutes of coming onto the park.
And in the final minute of normal time, the visitors were denied a deserved
late consolation goal when Sam Ashton bravely dived at the feet of the
onrushing St. Helens’ No. 9 Brian Hatton, but was unable to prevent
the ball from rebounding to captain Ian Dyson who blasted wide with the
goal at his mercy.
But it wasn’t to be, and so this was another three points gained
which helps consolidate F.C. United’s position at the top of the
North West Counties Football League First Division table.
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