Match Report

FC United crashed out of the Emirates FA Cup after suffering a 2-1 home defeat to Warrington Town at Broadhurst Park ‪on Saturday afternoon‬.

Despite taking the lead through a Regan Linney penalty, the Reds found themselves on the wrong end of the three goal split thanks to a quick equaliser from Mitch Duggan and a second half gift for Connor Roberts.

As the old cliché goes, it simply was a game of two halves. The first half being a competitive cup tie with both teams looking dangerous and fired up to get through to the next round, and the second being a much slower game where the Reds never really got into the swing of things.

FC took the lead after just 26 minutes when Craig Carney was brought down in the box, before Linney fired home his spot-kick to open the scoring.

It didn’t take the visitors long to draw level though and within two minutes a sublime strike left FC ‘keeper Paddy Wharton with no chance as Duggan levelled things up.

Both teams had chances to take the lead before the break with the most notable for FC being a strike from Tunde Owolabi which was blocked before he and captain Mike Potts got in each other’s way to see the joint effort go flying over the bar and deep into the terrace on the St Mary’s Road End.

In the second half the performance from FC became a bit fatigued and lackadaisical, with chances being very much at a premium. In such a close game, where nothing was being created it was always a feeling that an error could decide things. That error wasn’t one specific event, but the FC defence was poor in picking up men in the box and as the ball came to Roberts inside the six yard box, it was a gift that he was never going to reject.

The visiting side ran down the clock with some fine examples of gamesmanship and time management, but the truth is FC didn’t really deserve to take much away from what was a closely contested game. Reno’s men have an immediate shot at retribution as they take their current league run of four games without defeat to Warrington ‪on Tuesday evening‬.

Report by Craig Phillips