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United up to fourth with thrashing of Ferriby

FC United moved up to fourth place in the UniBond Premier Division after demolishing North Ferriby United 4-0 at Gigg Lane on Saturday afternoon in front of 3,120 supporters with goals from Jerome Wright, Tunji Moses, Simon Carden and Carlos Roca.

The Reds looked absolutely unstoppable as they tore through the team from Humberside with all four goals being of the highest quality. In fairness to the visitors, they were unfortunate not to get on the score sheet as well but FC United goalkeeper Sam Ashton was on fine form - making some superb saves.

United came flying out of the blocks and it took them just four minutes to break the deadlock. Adam Carden, playing at right-back in place of the injured Danny Warrender, slipped a ball down the flank for Roca, who was roughly 15 yards inside his own half.

Roca danced past four desperately lunging defenders as if it was the easiest task in the world before surging out to the right wing, he then looked up and played a perfect ball to the back post for Wright to run on to and head across goal in to the net. A truly superb opener.

Just moments later Carden was allowing Roca to run at the visiting defence again and the winger’s quick feet won a corner in front of the Manchester Road End which he launched dangerously into the box. United captain Rob Nugent met the ball with a good header at the far post and his defensive partner Adam Tong helped the ball back to him at the second attempt. FC United’s longest serving player then flashed an audacious bicycle-kick narrowly wide.

North Ferriby, a team which has occupied a play-off place for much of the season, were not going to roll over for the Reds though. Resplendent in their Norwich City-esque yellow and green kit, the visitors were determined to get back on level terms. With around 15 minutes on the clock, Russell Fry stole the ball from Simon Carden during a rare lapse of concentration from the midfielder.

Fry brought the ball forward and United’s defence was slow to react meaning he could lay a lovely diagonal ball to the unmarked left-winger Colin Hunter. Hunter hit his shot first time from just inside the box but Ashton got down well to tip the ball round the post for a corner.

And Ferriby nearly grabbed an equaliser from the corner. This time Hunter supplied Fry with an inviting cross and the former Hull City midfielder met it with a terrific volley - only to see Ashton block his effort on the line and Adam Tong hook the ball to safety.

The warning signs were there for United, so as ever they decided that the best form of defence was attack and promptly doubled their lead. With 20 minutes gone, Nugent pumped a long ball down the middle for Carl Lomax to flick over to the left wing for Wright. The scorer of the first goal turned provider by whipping a great cross into the back post for Moses to score his first goal for the club with a brave close-range, leaping header.

Moments later, Ashton again had to make another good save from Hunter when the winger was found unmarked once again, this time by David Cooke. Despite the scares, confidence was clearly running through the team in red and Nugent launched another attack by spreading the ball out wide-left to Wright.

Wright took on the Cooke before crossing in the box, Sam Denton headed the ball clear but Simon Carden was underneath it with his back to goal tussling for possession with Ferriby captain Ben Morley. Carden won the header, flicked it up with his right foot, span around his marker and then curled a low drive in off the left post from the edge of the box. It was his 56th goal for FC United, making him the club’s second highest ever scorer, and even by his high standards it was one of his best.

With just 27 minutes gone in the match, United had a three goal lead and it looked incredibly unlikely that North Ferriby were going to be able to come back from that. Due to that, Karl Marginson had the luxury of resting some of his players and so David Chadwick and Nicky Platt replaced Nugent and Simon Carden at the interval.

Platt was unfortunate not to get on the score sheet when he connected with a Wright corner but Ferriby goalkeeper Mark Wilberforce made a good save on an otherwise horrible afternoon for him.

Down at the other end, Ashton thwarted Hunter for the third time in the match. The winger latched onto a good cross field ball from Fry and went one-on-one with United’s shot stopper but he was off his line at pace to smother any hope Ferriby had of getting back into the game.

Then in the 71st minute, the Reds put the icing on the cake. Danny Williams, on as a substitute for Phil Marsh, linked up with Lomax and Wright well down the left wing before laying the ball back for Simon Garner who crossed the ball first time to the back post where Roca slid in to make it four.

With the job done and another warning fired out to the promotion chasing pack, United sat back to enjoy the rest of a fantastic Youth United Day.




First Posted ~ 15:23 Tue 7 Apr 2009
News ID ~ 2180
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021