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United beaten at Bradford

Two goals from Simon Carden were not enough as a poor first half performance condemned FC United to a second league defeat in as many matches - going down 3-2 to Bradford Park Avenue at the Horsfall Stadium on Monday night.

The West Yorkshire side started the game brightly and could have been two goals up inside five minutes, but for vital touches from FC keeper Sam Ashton. It actually took 14 minutes for the home team to take the lead as a corner from the left was glanced in by James Knowles.

Despite the setback, the Reds reacted immediately and could have had a penalty when Ben Deegan was brought down, only for the referee to instead give a free-kick right on the edge of the box.

It didn’t take too long for BPA to extend their lead as a long ball wasn’t dealt with by the United defence and Aiden Savory side-footed the ball into the net. Things got even worse just after the half hour as Chris Hall capitalised on a mistake from Rob Nugent to slot the ball into the corner of the net.

There was still time for Ashton to pull off a great save before the half-time whistle; in fact it is safe to say that without Sam in goal Bradford could probably have gone in five or six goals up.

The half-time team talk seemed to work as FC came out a different team, though they were let off by a bad BPA miss, when a header was put over the top with the goal wide open. This near miss galvanised the team and backed by a very noisy away crowd, which seems the norm at Bradford, the Reds edged back into the game.

Simon Carden had a shot deflected wide and Danny Warrender had a long range shot easily saved by the keeper. United gave themselves a lifeline on 68 minutes when a cross from the left was cut back by Adam Carden for his namesake Simon, who calmly slotted the ball past Steve Dickinson.

Good pressure from the Reds saw Adam Carden go close with a shot and Nugent fire over from the edge of the box. United were also making use of the long throws of Adam Tong and one almost resulted in a goal as Dickinson did well to tip a Deegan header away.

With four minutes to go, a corner from the left caused panic in the BPA defence and after a scramble the ball was forced over the line by Simon Carden. Carden nearly grabbed a hat-trick and a priceless equaliser in the last minute when a long punt forward was headed on by Carl Lomax. Carden lashed the ball goalwards but unfortunately it sailed over the bar.

It was certainly a game of two halves but the Reds will need to cut out the individual mistakes and stop giving teams two and three goal head-starts if they are to get anything from the game at Retford on Saturday.

Report by Steven Wood


Teams:

FC United
1. S Ashton
2. D Warrender (cautioned 52)
3. S Garner
4. T Moses
5. A Tong
6. R Nugent (capt) (cautioned 52)
7. A Carden
8. S Carden
9. B Deegan (cautioned 55)
10. J Wright
11. J Cottrell
Subs
12. C Lomax (for 10 67)
14. C Roca (for 11 57)
15. B Morris
16. J Mack (for 7 75)
17. D Williams

Scorer: S Carden 68, 86

Bradford (Park Avenue)

1. S Dickinson
2. S Downes
3. J Price
4. J Knowles
5. S Ainge (cautioned 56)
6. C Stabb
7. S Baldry (capt)
8. R O’Brien
9. C Hall
10. A Savory (cautioned 9)
11. M James
Subs
12. J Groom
14. R Stamer
15. A Campbell (for 10 85)
16. M Bett
17. L Gibson

Scorers: Knowles 13, Savory 21, Hall 37



First Posted ~ 14:51 Tue 18 Aug 2009
News ID ~ 2374
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021