A Half of two games

After a long trip up the M6 to Morecambe the youth were delighted to face a trip down it in their next away game, travelling to Nantwich. The hosts were a little less delighted as the game clashed with a commitment to a Crewe and District cup game, so were forced to split their squad between the two games. As both their opponents prefer to play in red and the Nantwich youth change kit is red and white stripes, FC adopted the spirit of the "Making Friends Not Millionaires"?? slogan to play in Blue. That spirit didn’t last beyond kick off as our Under 18’s came away with a 5-1 win, maintaining their 100% start and topping the table.

Nantwich did start brightly, with a good chance in the second minute but FC soon took control of the game. Jay Walcott was unlucky to see an effort turned onto a post after 12 minutes and Jake Haslam had several chances early on. The first goal came in the 23rd minute as Harrison Reeve playing a holding midfield role fed Lee Hill out on the right; his cross was turned in by Jay.

FC continued to dominate the game and it was perhaps a surprise that it took another 15 minutes for the second goal to arrive, although that was not as surprising as the manner in which it arrived. Skipper, Josh Burke ran with the ball from the half way line and either as a result of the space opening in front of him or a lack of blue shirts offering good passing options; he unleashed a speculative effort from around 25 yards which the Nantwich keeper misjudged completely and the ball nestled in the bottom corner of the net. Nantwich then sparked into life and had a couple of chances without truly threatening as the half drew to a close.

Buoyed by words of encouragement FC sought to quickly finish of the game in the second half. After six minutes it was 3-0 as the ball was quickly moved via Jay and Jake to Josh; his shot from a similar distance to his earlier effort was much more convincing and gave the Nantwich keeper absolutely no chance. At this point FC started to relax and were caught defensively twice as Nantwich first pulled one back two minutes later and should have scored in a similar move to the FC first goal only for the Nantwich left back, in unfamiliar territory, to clear the ball rather than turn it home unopposed with a grateful Andy Graham completing the task.

That provided a wake-up call and FC resumed control of the game. Sixty first minute substitute Daniel McLoughlin was unlucky not to get on the score sheet within a minute as he tried to follow up on a deflected Dylan Moloney effort. He had a good run and shot saved fifteen minutes later with Jay, Jake and Davison Banda also coming close.
FC did add to the score twice in the last five minutes as a throw found Jay and he passed for Ryan Westwood to slot home and two minutes later Dylan broke clear of the defence and lobbed the advancing keeper. Nantwich made the best they could of a difficult situation but the result was never really in doubt.

FC United of Manchester:

Andrew Farrimond, Andy Graham (Daniel McLoughlin 61), Davison Banda, Jordan Dainty, Obeid Elghreaw, Harrison Reeve, Lee Hill (Ryan Westwood 75), Josh Burke (Ryan Lyons 80), Dylan Moloney, Jay Walcott, Jake Haslam. Subs Not Used Aron Buckley-Smith and Lee Worswick.

Goals:

Jay Walcott (23 mins), Josh Burke (37 & 51), Ryan Westwood (86) and Dylan Moloney (87)