FC United fight back to draw at Mickleover

FC United’s faint play-off hopes are still alive – just – as the Reds twice came from behind to earn a 3-3 at Mickleover on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

The Reds started very brightly and took the lead inside three minutes with a trademark Regan Linney goal with him collecting the ball on the left, cutting inside and curling a shot inside the far post. From that point, it looked as if it would be “how many” for FC as they were seeing all the ball, Michael Donohue almost getting his third goal in two games, but firing wide.

As the half wore on, the home side did start to get into the game and on 37 minutes were level. Donohue tripping Andy Davies, Shaquille McDonald putting away the spot kick. 

On 42 minutes, Mickelover took the lead when Davies took his turn in the “goal of the day” competition, firing into the top corner from 25 yards. FC probably should have gone in level, a good move between Charlie Ennis, Linney and Adam Dodd saw the latter fire wide when well placed.

Within five minutes of the restart, FC were back level with a penalty of their own, Linney tripped on the edge of the box. Ennis putting his Nantwich miss behind him to fire into the roof of the net. 

Curtis Jones was next to come close, his header saw Johnathon Hedge tip the ball onto the bar but just a couple of minutes later, Mickleover took the lead again when they broke at speed. The FC defence seemed to have dealt with the initial attack, but they were slow to react to a loose ball and McDonald was presented with a simple task of tapping the ball into the net.

Just before the hour, FC drew level again, a corner being volleyed in by Jones. This spurred the Reds on and they finished the game the strongest, Linney running half the pitch but finishing weakly and a free-kick hitting Ewan Bange that allowed the keeper to make a simple save.

In injury time, FC came close to taking the  points when a cross was side footed against his own post by Elliot Walker but thankfully for the Mickleover full back, the ball went out for a corner.

All in all, FC will probably look back on points dropped and now really need to win all five remaining games and hope for miracles elsewhere.

Website man of the match: Regan Linney. Another all-action performance capped off with a great solo goal.

Report by Steven Wood