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FC United’s league campaign ends in defeat against Hyde

The curtain came down on FC United’s 2021/22 league season with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Hyde United in front of 2,307 supporters at Broadhurst Park – our biggest crowd of the season.

The result means the Reds finish the season in ninth place – 10 points short of the play-offs and 20 points behind champions Buxton. 

As usual, Neil Reynold’s side dominated possession – 77% to 23% – but they gifted Tom Pratt a goal for the visitors in the 28th minute due to a mix-up between centre-back Curtis Jones and goalkeeper Dan Lavercombe.

The Reds pressed for an equaliser for most of the second half, but Edward Brown sealed the victory with a superb breakaway goal against the run of play 12 minutes before fulltime.  

With little to play for other than pride, neither side really got going in the first half but the Reds looked comfortable until conceding a soft goal.  

A tame throughball bobbled up on the pitch and Jones tried to nudge it back to his goalkeeper without looking. However, the passback evaded Lavercombe who had raced off his line, which left an open goal for Pratt to roll the ball into to make it 1-0.   

United looked livelier in the second half attacking in the St Mary’s Road End and the introduction of Josh Galloway and Ewan Bange certainly added to the threat. The Reds had a 15-minute spell where they bombarded the Hyde penalty area. 

However, the goal didn’t come and with 12 minutes to go, FC United’s season was summed up in 30 seconds of football. Despite having the vast majority of possession and playing attractive football with some talented players, they were caught with a sucker punch on the break.  

The Reds’ back line was caught off guard by a stray clearance that found its way over the halfway line. Brown was the quickest to react and expertly chipped the ball over Lavercombe and into the top left corner from 30 yards out. 

Hyde then saw out the match to complete the double over FC United after beating the Reds 2-1 at Ewen Fields back in August. 

Website man of the match – Regan Linney. Although he didn’t get his name on the scoresheet this week, FC United’s supporters’, players’ and manager’s player of the season provided some excellent build up play and skilful dribbling.

After the game, FC United manager and CEO Neil Reynolds didn’t hide his disappointment and frustration with the result and the final league table. He said: “The scoreline doesn’t lie. How many shots did we have? We controlled the possession in the first phase, the goal we conceded was shambolic. 

“It was a really poor and flat performance in front of our biggest crowd of the season. The fans deserve better, and they’ll get better. It was just a really poor performance. I’m the manager, I’ll take the shots and some of those players will be back next season, some won’t but that’s football.

“The dressing room know that we need leaders, we need squad depth. Some players in there are passive and that isn’t acceptable at this football club or any football club."

Next up for FC is yet more European action as we welcome Italian side Brera Calcio to Broadhurst Park on Wednesday 4th May at 7.45pm, in the Fenix Trophy. 

Providing the Reds avoid a nine-goal defeat against the Milanese club, we will then be in the inaugural final of the Fenix Trophy on Saturday 11 June in Rimini, Italy against the winners of Group A, which is currently wide open with all four teams still capable of finishing in first place.   

Report by Callum Scott and Matthew Haley 


First Posted ~ 16:00 Sun 24 Apr 2022
News ID ~ 9294
Last Updated ~ 11:03 Mon 25 Apr 2022