Reds climb the Daisy Hill

A late rearrangement of the fixture schedule meant that instead of playing the previously postponed Prescot Cables fixture the FC Youth Team travelled to deepest Westhoughton to play our old friends from the North West Counties days, Daisy Hill FC. With their pitch having recovered from the soaking that caused the postponement of the first team friendly last month, the game kicked off on schedule.

The New Sirs pitch though is never an easy one to play flowing football on, so not surprisingly early chances were sadly lacking. The nearest either side came to a goal in the opening quarter of an hour was when a loose back pass gave debut keeper Grant Shelton problems clearing and the ensuing thirty seconds of pinball could easily have seen Daisy Hill take the lead. Fortunately they didn’t and the danger was eventually cleared.

The first goal wasn’t much longer coming as a ball down the right touch line gave Jack Lyons the chance to cut inside and shoot. His shot was turned out for a corner, but the confusion that the corner kick caused gave Jamie Mack the chance to shoot home from the edge of the box.

This was a cue for a wave of FC attacks, most of which actually gave Daisy Hill little cause for concern, until the 26th minute that is. Then when a John Buckley shot was charged down and looked to be trickling into the arms of Scott Mather in the Daisy Hill goal, Jamie Mack showed his predatory instincts by getting there first as the pitch slowed the ball still more, rounding the keeper and tapping home the second goal.

Around five minutes later it was 3-0 when having collected the ball in midfield, John Buckley took advantage of space created by movement from Jamie and Toby Iloba, to power through and shoot past the keeper.

Daisy Hill rallied slightly at this point and kept the action firmly in midfield for the next ten minutes. This was until another ball down the right touch line freed Jack Lyons. His cross seemed slightly disappointing as it appeared to be an easy catch for the keeper. However a defender keen to help out only caused confusion as he tried to head it clear at the same time. The ball dropped to the ground with Toby Iloba on hand for a simple tap in.

It stayed 4-0 until half time and indeed for much of the second half as FC resting on a lead seemed to let the pitch take control of the game. A soft surface had cut up and most passes went astray. It had seemed it would stay that way until full time when in the eightieth minute Jamie decided it was time to complete his hat-trick with a strong run from midfield and shot.

The last chance of the game came in the last minute when, having come on as substitute Ryan (son of Darren) Lyons curled a glorious shot, bound for the top corner and goal of the game until Mather stretched out a fingertip and cleared it for a corner.

Daisy Hill
1 Scott Mather
2 Danny Ainsworth
3 Danny Baldwin
4 Danny Hartfield
5 Aaron Buckley
6 Danny Crook
7 Jake Foster
8 Ellis Carter
9 Adam Alwill
10 Sam Knowles
11 Cameron Butcher
Subs
12 Sean Coop
14 Corey Cunliffe

FC United of Manchester
1 Grant Shenton
2 Alex Sutcliffe
3 Barry Davies
4 John Buckley (Goal 30 minutes)
5 Nick Swirad
6 Shaun Connor
7 Mark Reeves
8 Toby Iloba (Goal 40 minutes)
9 Jack Lyons
10 Jamie Mack (Goals 16,26 & 80 minutes)
11 Sam Freakes
Subs
12 Richard Walker
14 Ryan Lyons (for 4, 69 minutes)
15 Tim Marshall
16 Stephen Carson (for 6, 58 minutes)
17 Shaun Williams (for 9, 69 minutes)