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FC United denied victory in six goal thriller at Witton Albion

FC United took a share of the spoils in a six goal thriller, drawing 3-3 with Witton Albion.

Manager Neil Reynolds stuck with the same starting line up that took the field against Basford in the FA Trophy but it was soon clear that that game was certainly a different one to the previous.

In truth the first half wasn’t a great spectacle with clear chances at a premium. The home side had first view of goal when Will Jones beat the offside trap but couldn’t beat Cameron Belford. The Reds were struggling to get their passing games goingbut there was a couple of chances, a poor backlpass let Regan Linney in, but he was forced wide and the chance went. Charlie Ennis also went close with a free kick that was pushed wide and a goal bound shot that was blocked.

Alex Curran was brought on for the second half and straight away this seemed to give FC some momentum in the game. They took the lead on 49 minutes when a Linney run and cross found skipper Mike Potts at the far post who blasted the ball home.

Nine minutes later, the lead was doubled when a free kick from close to the touchline by Adam Dodd looped over Chris Renshaw and into the far corner of the net. Chris Doyle had the chance to make the game safe just on the hour mark but headed wide.

With 68 minutes on the clock, the lead was halved when a ball over the top caused confusion in the FC defence. Tom Owens found his fellow sub Kyle Sambor who slotted home.

With six minutes left on the clock, Sambor drew Albion level. The ball was played forward to him and in collecting the ball, seemed to foul Dodd right under the nose of the assistant. For some reason, play was allowed to continue and he finished superbly into the far corner, giving Belford no chance.

In the 89th minutes, it looked for all the world that FC had won it when Linney and Dodd combined superbly on the left and the left back rifled the ball past Renshaw to make the score 3-2 but the home side had something else to say about that.

With two of the five minutes added time gone the ball dropped in the box to Billy Smart who blasted the ball past Belford to give Albion a share of the points.

Before the game, the talk was that a point would have been more than acceptable but after being 2-0 and 3-2 up, FC might feel aggrieved not to have taken all three points on offer.

Report by Steven Wood

Website man of the match: Adam Dodd. Great link up play with Regan Linney, strong defensive work and two goals. Not much more to be added.


First Posted ~ 08:11 Mon 18 Nov 2019
News ID ~ 8559
Last Updated ~ 22:45 Thu 4 Feb 2021