Development Squad Lose to Nelson (Full report)

The Development Squad held a hand of welcome out to Nelson and saw them walk away with three points after Blazey Szmidt headed in from a corner in the 71st minute. It was possibly their only effort on target as they provided the lads with an important lesson in their development.

Nelson have not started the season well and arrived at the Nicholls campus with a plan and executed it perfectly. Unfortunately for the football purist that plan was to play with one up front and keep the rest of the players in a well drilled bank of nine behind the ball.

The net effect was that FC United dominated possession without having too many clear sights of goal. Lewis Adams got on the end of a Matthew Boland free kick in the seventh minute but was adjudged to be offside and hit the bar in the 21st minute. Boland hit the bar in the 35th minute as a Ryan Lyons ball gave the reds a rare chance to get beyond the Nelson defence.

The pattern continued in the second half, Jon Poizer saw a 25 yard drive turned out for a corner by Matthew Pilkington in the Nelson goal but again there were too many Nelson bodies committed to defending the last eighteen yards.

Midway through the half Mike Taylor was caught as he tried to bring the ball out of defence which led to an exchange of views in which the referee said Taylor and Charlesworth for Nelson clashed heads and sent both off. Then came the Nelson goal after which even lone front man Paddy Furey was seldom seen beyond the half way line.

Despite frantic efforts, which at times seemed like FC trying to use a battering ram to get an equaliser they failed and Nelson celebrated at the final whistle as though they had just won the league.

Even so, it is not called the Development Squad for nothing and if they are going to progress through to the first team it is games like this that they will have more to learn from than any comfortable win. Next up is Hyde to be played on Thursday 26 September at Abbey Hey kicking off at 7:45pm.

FC United of Manchester:
1. Chris Taylor
2. Ryan Lyons
3. Lewis Adams
4. Sam Hibbert
5. Jordan Dainty
6. Charlie Doyle
7. Daniel Maynard
8. Mike Taylor
9. Jon Poizer
10. Matthew Boland
11. Frank van Gils

Substitutes:
12. Denico Walters (for 7, 54 mins)
15. Liam Ellis (for 9, 79 mins)
16. Sam Dee
17. Matt Musialowski
18. Josh Smethurst (for 3, 58 mins)


Nelson:

1. Matthew Pilkington
2. Mark Entwistle
3. Josh Waine
4. Blazey Szmidt
5. Tommy Doyle
6. Sam Charlesworth
7. Perry Jepson
8. Mohammed Nabeel
9. Paddy Furey
10. Bryn Polter
11. Louis Percival

Substitute:
12. Israr Abbas
14. Dane Winter
15. Obeid Soge
16. Michael O’Reilly
17. Jamie Whiteman