FC United gain draw at Matlock Town + HIGHLIGHTS

FC United gained a 1-1 draw at Matlock Town in a hard fought game on Saturday afternoon with Tom Greaves heading home the equaliser ten minutes into the second half.

The Reds found themselves 1-0 down after 17 minutes when Danny Holland pounced on a rebound after a parried save by goalkeeper Jon Worsnop. Thankfully, United got themselves back on level terms moments after the break and held on for a decent point away from home, despite a few second half scares.

It was a fair result overall but the Reds will probably be the happier of the two teams because Matlock failed to take a couple of late chances and couldn’t make home advantage count.

United should have broken the deadlock 10 minutes into the game but Astley Mulholland wasted a one-on-one opportunity by blasting his effort straight at Jon Kennedy and defender Adam Yates raced back to hack the loose ball to safety.

The disappointment was compounded just seven minutes later when Holland opened the scoring. Worsnop made a decent save, tipping away Corey Gregory’s low and hard effort from just inside the box. But Holland was quickest to react to the loose ball and slammed home from six yards out.

United failed to really test Kennedy again in the first half and Matlock deservedly went into the break 1-0 to the good. However, the Reds came out with renewed vigour in the second half and Greaves’ glancing header from a Liam Brownhill corner was enough to secure the draw.

Karl Marginson’s side nearly threw away their hard work twice in the following 10 minutes though with some poor defending. Firstly, Matlock captain Liam Needham found Holland unmarked in the box with a lobbed throughball. Fortunately, Worsnop and centre-back Tom Davies, who had raced back to cover, did just enough to put off Holland and the striker couldn’t repeat his first half heroics, lofting the bouncing ball over the crossbar.

Moments later, in the 67th minute, Worsnop had to pull off a great point-blank save when centre-back David Haggerty flicked a cross on to the back post and Holland was the first to meet the ball in the air.

After that, the game petered out into a tight midfield battle with a series of free-kicks and bookings interrupting the play as Matlock tried to bully their way through the FC United defence, to no effect.

All in all, it was a decent point and reasonable performances from the Reds but the team need to start turning draws into victories if they are going to climb the Evo-Stik Premier Division table.

Website man of the match: Jon Worsnop. There were no real standout performances in a workmanlike display by FC United but our goalkeeper gets the award for pulling off a fantastic save from Holland to earn us a share of the spoils.

Report by Matthew Haley