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Norton rifles winner as last gasp United beat Stamford

Mike Norton slotted home a late winner as FC United moved to within one point of league leaders Chorley in the Evo-Stik Premier Division with two games to go.

Liam Brownhill fired in a free kick straight at keeper Will Jones inside two minutes as FC tried to make a quick start however they were caught a minute later as very suspiciously offside Ryan Robbins sprung forward and curled a great shot past Dave Carnell into the far corner of the goal.
On 15 minutes, Mike Norton was wrestled to the ground after getting goal side of his defender but the officials waved play on.

Just after the half hour the scoreline was equal when a Lee Neville free kick was headed into the top corner of the goal by Norton. The scoreline stayed this way until a minute before the break when a free kick into the FC box was nodded down for Nabil Sharriff to fire into the roof the net.

At the break Margy went for broke, making a triple substitution with Lewis Lacy, Callum Byrne and Jerome Wright replacing Lee Neville, Astley Mulholland and the injured Dean Stott and within a minute of the restart the changes had their desired effect when a Liam Brownhill free kick found its way into the net via a touch from Matthew Wolfenden.

The goal brought an FC onslaught to The Daniels goal. Tom Greaves headed over a Tom Davies cross and a scramble in the Stamford box saw Jones block a goal bound shot before Wright put his shot wide,

On 67 minutes, Greaves was played into the box but saw Jones pull off a great save. Lacy was the next to go close when he looped a header just over the bar. A minute later and it looked like it wasn’t going to be FCs day as Norton controlled a high ball superbly, turned and rolled the ball agonisingly past the post.

With just six minutes on the clock, Norton made amends when he controlled a long pass and slotted the ball past Jones.

It was an agonising last few minutes for FC as they held their nerve and lead. With other results going their way, they will go into the last two games confident of a top two finish.

Man of the Match - Mike Norton. Two goals and a constant thorn in the home side. A typical performance that showed how important the result was to the player.

Report by Steven Wood


First Posted ~ 17:53 Sat 19 Apr 2014
News ID ~ 5494
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021