FC United draw with Barrow as football returns to Broadhurst Park

175 days after FC United played out a 4-4 draw with Warrington Town in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 football returned to Broadhurst Park as the Reds drew 2-2 with Barrow in front of a crowd of less than 300.

The crowd made up of volunteers invited by the club, to thank them for their efforts in helping the club last season, got to witness a spirited performance as the Reds gave the Football League’s new boys a real run for their money.

The two teams met in the FA Trophy in January, with Barrow running out convincing 7-0 winners, but an FC team that included 13 of the 14 players that featured in that previous fixture were clearly up for a little bit of redemption, albeit in a pre-season fixture.

FC took the lead after an overhit free-kick found its way to Michael Donohue on the left. Donohue put the ball in towards the far post where Aaron Morris’ looping header beat the Barrow ‘keeper before bouncing in off the post.

It wasn’t an undeserving lead either and the men in red will have felt hard done by to not have a two goal cushion at the break. Michael Fowler arrived at FC this week on a season long loan from Fleetwood Town, and gave a great account on his home debut for the team.

Fowler (it’s going to take some getting used to cheering for a Fowler wearing a red shirt with a 9 on the back) had a great opportunity to double the lead as he used his great movement in the box to get free of his marker only to see his connection from the crossed free kick go agonisingly wide of the post.

With the visitors looking forward to their first season in the Football League since 1972 next month, new manager David Dunn took the opportunity to change all eleven players at the break and the line up in the second half looked considerably stronger than those from the first 45 minutes.

Barrow fired a warning shot, calling Ollie Martin into a good stop but just seconds later a poor clearance saw Jack Hindle find the back of the net from just outside the area.

Three minutes later and the visitors had the lead, following a good ball through the defence Scott Quigley used his strength to fight off the challenge before firing past Martin.

FC wrapped up the scoring just two minutes after, making it three goals in five minutes, as some good work between substitutes Paul Ennis and Matt van Wyk saw the latter move into the box and fire into the far corner with a well taken effort.

Manager Neil Reynolds will surely be proud of the performance from his players as we move towards the September 19th start date. The Reds now face a trip to Longridge Town of the North West Counties League Premier Division on Tuesday evening.

Whilst it was far from the “normal” matchday experience, very few things are what we would have considered “normal” several months ago at the moment, and to get some football back at Broadhurst Park felt brilliant and hopefully we are now on the road back to regaining our club and our experiences as a community of fans in the not too distant future.

Website man of the match: Michael Donohue – Made the first goal for Morris and never stopped working hard all afternoon. Even filled in as right back and captain towards the latter stages of the game.

Report by Craig Phillips