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Landlords 2 - 0 Lodgers

FC United were defeated by a well organised professional display from their landlords Bury FC, but the Reds had their chances and by no means were they outclassed.

Both sides started comfortably and there was no clear evidence of a five division gap between the two teams, although in fairness to Bury they were fielding a number of youth team players.

Chances were few and far between in the first half as United were restricted to a number of long balls with David Swarbrick giving chase but just failing to test Aaron Grundy in the Shakers’ goal.

Bury looked the more dangerous coming forward and the Reds had one particularly lucky escape in a goalmouth scramble that seemed more akin to a game of pinball than football.

The Coca-Cola League Two outfit took the lead in the cruellest of fashions in the 27th minute when Rob Nugent misjudged Marc Pugh’s teasing cross from the right wing and turned it into his own goal passed trialist ‘keeper Sam Ashton.

Both sides were unchanged at the break and FC pressed forward for an equaliser. But a sloppy infield pass from Rory Patterson allowed Bury to catch the United defence off guard with a quick counter attack that was expertly finished by Damien Quigley with a diving header.

From then on Bury sat back, seemingly more than happy with their two goal cushion. But their defence didn’t look overly comfortable after the introduction of Adie Orr and first team debutant Ricardo Brondial.

The pair created a nuisance of themselves with their pace and trickery. Orr forced Grundy into his one truly good save of the night, whilst Brondial was unlucky to see his chip land on the roof of the net.

The man from Portugal also got the ball in the back of the net, finishing well when through on goal. But unfortunately he had blatantly used his hand to flick it round the oncoming defender and although it was missed by the referee, his assistant was not as unsighted.

After the match Manager Karl Marginson was full of praise for both sides. He said: "We were missing several first-team squad players tonight like Stuart Rudd, who’s on holiday, and Phil Melville, who’s got a leg strain, and yet I thought our quality was good, especially after the break.

"Bury did catch us on the break a lot in the second half, but they are a well-organised team. Full-time pros are always going to have the advantage and you have to give Bury credit for playing football in the right spirit."

FC United Man of the Match: Matty Taylor. The former Woodley Sports fullback put in another very well accomplished display. Always looks calm and comfortable on the ball and very little got passed him down the left wing all night.

Matthew Haley


Match details:

Attendance: 2,674

Line ups:
FC United:
1. S Ashton
2. M Taylor
3. A Mortimer
4. S Spencer
5. D Brown (capt)
6. R Nugent
7. J Howard
8. W Ahern
9. D Swarbrick
10. S Torpey
11. R Patterson
Subs:
12. S Carden (8, 64)
13. A Orr (11, 51)
14. D Chadwick
15. L Mike
16. J Mitten
17. S Smith (4, 48)
18. R Giggs (7, 51)
19. L Coyne (5, 72)
20. Brondial (10, 64)

Bury:
1. A Grundy
2. R Baker
3. T Kennedy
4. D Quigley
5. C Brass (capt)
6. A Parrish
7. M Pugh
8. N Adams
9. T Youngs
10. J Speight
11. D Buchanan
Subs:
12. D Worrall (11, 66)
13. M Smith
14. D Stephens (8, 66)
15. L Peatfield
16. J Stepien (9, 82)

Scorers: Nugent (own goal) 27, Quigley 49.


First Posted ~ 11:19 Thu 27 Jul 2006
News ID ~ 377
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021