Four out of four as Youth see off Northwich

On a day when all three FC United sides were in action it was down to the youth team to travel the furthest. The John Walker Field of Dreams (pun intentional) near Chester and now the home pitch for the Northwich Victoria youth side was the destination. The young reds came away with all three points and continue their 100% start, winning 2-0 with goals from Mike Taylor and Jonathan Poizer in either half.

The lads started brightly, going ahead in the first minute, Poizer intercepted a pass and fed Taylor, his chip shot was touched by Ben Crellin in the Northwich goal but wasn’t enough to stop the ball going in at the far post. This was the cue for an attempted Jurgan Klinnsman like celebration but the result was more Arthur Daley than Tom.

For the next fifteen minutes, FC took the game to Northwich. Andy Lee and Kane Hughes both had chances to score. The best of these came when the two combined in the second minute. Lee ran down the left wing and crossed for Hughes; who’s shot on a pirouetted turn came back off the post. The home full backs being turned at will as Lee and Daniel Maynard on the other flank had pace to spare.

Northwich did however keep themselves in the game through dogged defending and counter attacking and from twenty minutes to half time chances were few and far between.

The second half was pretty much all FC United as they stepped up the search for a second goal. All three substitutions were made within five minutes, around the hour mark; Yousif Yousif came on for Kane Hughes and Blaine Biggs for Andy Lee. The third, Lewis Adams for Jonathan Poizer was lined up, waiting for the ball to go out of play when Biggs had a run down the left and crossed for Poizer to to sneak in and fire home. It wasn’t enough to keep him on the pitch as the change was made before play restarted.

Quite how that was the end of the scoring will remain the biggest mystery of the game. Yousif created havoc with a tiring home defence and could have had a hat trick, if not more. His best chance was in the 65th minute when he had a clear run on goal but shot straight at the advancing keeper. Soon afterwards Matt Musialowski and Daniel Maynard combined to cross to the far post, his header hit the upright. Northwich continued to counter attack and will consider themselves unlucky not to have got something from the game, but in truth only really forced one save out of FC keeper Josh Broadbent.

Manager David Brown was constantly imploring the lads to make greater use of passing the ball to move play around the pitch as, whilst pleased with the start they have made to the season, there will be tougher games ahead.

Northwich Victoria:
1. Ben Crellin
2. Elliot Auton
3. Connor Corfe
4. Alex Howard
5. Callum Bramhall
6. Shaun Cain
7. Travis Brown
8. Josh Allen
9. Stuart Swift
10. Louis Lomas
11. Zac Finnigan
Substitutes
12. Matthew Marshall
14. Brad Battersby
15. Connor Toward
16. Callum McGhee
17. Cieran Hughes

FC United of Manchester
1. Josh Broadbent
2. Matt Musialowski
3. Josh Smethurst (Caution 73 min)
4. Charlie Doyle
5. George Shaw
6. Callum Rattigan
7. Daniel Maynard
8. Jonathan Poizer (c) (Goal 63 min)
9. Kane Hughhes
10. Mike Taylor (Goal 1 min)
11. Andy Lee
Substitutes
12. Blaine Biggs (11, 60 min)
14. Yousif Yousif (9, 57 min)
15. Lewis Adams (8, 63 min)
16. Jack Burgess
17. Liam Gerrard