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Youth Grind The Millers - Cup Final Match Report

The second of the FC United Youth Teams three cup finals saw them take on New Mills in Burscough, as the North West Youth Alliance sought to distribute their set piece games as far and wide as possible. This was a game dominated almost entirely by FC, winning by the same 4-1 score line by which they lost by last week.

They won their first corner with less than a minute gone but failed to take advantage. The Millers could have made them pay for that as they quickly broke down field and won a free kick on the edge of the FC box. Fortunately the delivery was poor and in truth they were never to really threaten the reds goal again in the first half. That though wasn’t entirely true as they did have the ball in the FC net on 37 minutes, but it was put there by a player who was always in an offside position yet couldn’t stop himself getting involved.

FC United were two goals up by then although it did take until the 26th minute for the first goal to arrive. Chances that came and went before then, were largely spurned by Matthew Boland. Though given his contribution to the rest of the half he might claim that he was merely finding his range on a hard, uneven surface.

Matthew scored the first goal himself after Connor Naughton had given Theo Kidd a chance to cross from the right. Matty fired home through a crowded box. He turned provider for the next two goals as his corners were fired home by Sam Howell in the 34th minute and Richard Smith in the 41st.

In the first half New Mills had been playing with a gusting wind behind them and had found a lot of passes being over hit. In the second half it was FC who faced that problem and not surprisingly the Millers were able to make a better game of it. They were awarded a penalty in the 48th minute for an untidy challenge in the box, but Liam Millen, in hitting his shot straight towards the middle of the goal, saw a trailing Andrew Farrimond leg clear the ball out for a corner. If that and a Lee Gregory shot over the bar in the 56th minute had gone in, there could have been a truly titanic cup final on offer. Neither did it took until the 85th minute before there was any addition to the score as Jordan Young pulled one back for the Millers.

This could have made for a tense finale but no sooner had the reds kicked off than Andy Lee launched a shot from outside the box that dipped into the top corner of the goal giving Jack Barlow absolutely no chance and that was that; the game finished 4-1 and the reds collected the cup and the winners medals. That is once the New Mills players realised they had been given them by mistake and handed them back.

FC United of Manchester: Andrew Farrimond, Alex Stones (Matthew Hassall 55mins), Josh Smethurst (Andy Lee 75 mins), Richard Smith, James Brooks, Kial Callacher, Sam Howell, Connor Naughton, Theo Kidd, Matthew Boland (Joshua Matthew 65 mins), Jonathan Poizer. Subs not used: Kyle Cunningham and Jonathan Beisty.

Goals: Matthew Boland, Sam Howell, Richard Smith and Andy Lee.



First Posted ~ 20:21 Mon 14 May 2012
News ID ~ 4239
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021