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Six goal United go ballistic at Bala

FC United continued their rich vein of form by thrashing Bala Town 6-1 in a pre-season friendly on Saturday afternoon.

The Reds were 4-0 up at half-time thanks to goals from Jerome Wright, Chris Ovington and two from Michael Norton. The hosts converted a penalty in the second-half but substitutes Ben Deegan and James Holden completed the rout.

United raced away into a 3-0 lead within the first 15 minutes with Wright opening the scoring. Steve Torpey floated a ball over from the right which Wright headed on first time to Norton on the edge of the box. A defender came sliding in to take the ball but Wright was following up to rifle a 20 yard effort into the bottom left corner.

Moment later, Torpey and Wright were in the thick of it again, linking up well down the left wing before laying the ball back to Jake Cottrell who curled the perfect cross in for Norton to score with a diving header at the near post.

United were looking absolutely unstoppable and it was no surprise when they made it three. Nicky Platt picked the ball up and burst towards the half-way line before slipping it to Torpey on his right. Torpey followed Platt’s lead by charging forward and laying the ball off for Ovington who had raced away down the right wing. The former Leeds United youngster took just one touch before firing the ball into the bottom left corner from 25-yards. A wonderful counter attacking goal to virtually seal the match.

With the Reds in such a commanding position the tempo slowed a little. Wright had a long range effort well saved on the half hour mark and 12 minutes later Torpey was pulled down in the box for a penalty. Norton put his spot-kick miss at Stalybridge Celtic last weekend behind him to make it 4-0.

The hosts got the goal their hardwork deserved midway through the second-half via a re-taken penalty. Substitute Zach Hibbert saved Mark Powell’s initial effort and his follow up on the rebound only for the referee’s assistant to deem the keeper was off his line as the kick was taken. Second time around, Powell confidently stepped up and chipped the ball to Hibbert’s right to make it 4-1.

However, it was too little, too late for the Welsh side as Deegan rose above a crowd of defenders in the box to head home a Wright corner into the top right corner before a long ball from the back was taken first time by Holden, chipping the ’keeper to make it six, putting the icing on the cake.



First Posted ~ 13:14 Sun 8 Aug 2010
News ID ~ 3008
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021