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Reserves work out Workington

Two goals from Tunde Owolabi and strikes from Justin Johnson and Frank van Gils took the FC United Reserves to a 4-2 win against Workington. Two strikes from Ryan Smith for the visitors kept the game open to the end. The move to the Lancashire League Western Division is intended to give the lads a more searching examination in preparation for a chance at first team level. This Workington team provided just that, seemingly with a height and weight advantage across the park. As such most of the first half was the contest to earn the right to play their way.

Workington claimed to have taken the lead early on with a scrappy opportunity, FC United seemingly failing to clear the ball before Ben Jupp pounced gratefully on it on the line. From the sidelines there seemed some justification for claims that it had gone over the line, but neither referee nor assistant were able to give a definite ruling and play was allowed to continue.

The reds had worked their way in to a position of dominance, at least in terms of possession, by the half hour mark. Owolabi, was beginning to make the most of his pace and movement to create chances but had missed two quite spectacularly but in the 34th minute found Justin Johnson on the right edge of the penalty area and he jinked forward, creating the space to fire into the roof of the net.

On 40 minutes the lead was doubled as Owolabi was released by van Gils down the left to run in an calmly shoot past the keeper and in at the far post. There was time for him to score again, just before half time when a Dean Hope free kick was dropped on to the edge of the penalty area for Owolabi to collect and turn before firing home.

If that was supposed to be the cue for FC to go on and dominate the game then the script changed very early in the second half. Defending a set piece in the box, the assistant referee adjudged an FC player to be guilty of holding and Ryan Smith converted what seemed a generous award. Although the reds weren’t thrown by that and did have the majority of possession, there was another Workington penalty claim turned down that seemed much more straightforward.

As the game progressed, Chris Hill hit a post and van Gils and Charlie Doyle went close before the best chances of the half. Hill found van Gils who fired home on 65 minutes but was rightly given offside and a Johnson thunderbolt hit the underside of the cross bar, bouncing down and away. Quite which side of the line it bounced on was the subject of debate between touch line and assistant but again neither official thought it had gone in.

FC United finally got the fourth goal five minutes from time. A superb pass out of defence from Jacob Holt split the defence and gave van Gils the chance to fire home. That however was not the end of the action, play quickly moved to the other end of the pitch and a Smith effort somehow drifted in to the net, rolling past a Workington player, in a seemingly offside position, who appeared to take a swing at the ball but without making contact, was adjudged not to have been interfering with play and the goal stood. There was no further action of note and the game ended 4-2 to FC United.

FC United of Manchester: 1. Ben Jupp 2. Ryan Saxon 3. Charlie Doyle 4. Jason Fowles 5. Nick Truelove 6. Jacob Holt 7. Frank van Gils 8. Dean Hope 9. Tunde Owolabi 10. Justin Johnson 11. Chris Hill. Substitutes: 12. Cameron Thorpe (for 11, 79 mins) 14. Matthew Toseland (for 17, 80 mins) 15. Rhodri Giggs 17, Nathan Chorlton (60 mins)

Workington: 1. Nigel McCombie 2. Cameron Prokar 3. Jamile Bethwaite 4. Dylan Hudson 5. David Gbemie 6. Marcus Adigon 7. Brandon Robertson 8. Andy Murray Jones 9. Ryan Smith 10. Joshua Usher 11. Ryan Mahoney. Substitutes 12. Greg Mitchell 14. Darryl Pocklington



First Posted ~ 17:00 Sun 12 Oct 2014
News ID ~ 5763
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021