FC United 3-0 St Helens Town

(Thursday 12 October 2006)
Football
By MIKE ROBERTS at Gigg Lane
Source: Morning Star
FC United of Manchester heralded a return to winning ways on Wednesday night, overcoming lowly St Helens Town 3-0 to consolidate their commanding lead at the top of the North West Counties First Division.

Their visitors, surprise strugglers froze in the face of a ruthless first-half performance from Karl Marginson's breakaway side. Goals from Simon Carden, Stuart Rudd and central defender Dave Brown saw FC United go 3-0 up after 25minutes and, though St. Helens recovered in time to stop the rot, by then it was too late.

Indeed, only an inspired performance between the posts by Mark Nicolson in the St Helens goal prevented the score from reaching much more as a rampant FC United, sensing little resistance during the opening minutes began to take control. Simon Carden took just seven minutes to break the deadlock, applying the close range finishing touch to a move which saw stand-in captain Rory Patterson beat the shellshocked keeper with a low shot.

Centre forward Johnathan Rudd stooped to nod home a second after Josh Howard's free kick had caused confusion in the St Helens penalty area. Howard, who took every opportunity to cause mayhem on the left flank, carved out another opportunity for Rudd that saw Nicolson react smartly to block after Mark Evans had made rather a hash of an attempted clearance.

Nicolson then denied Rudd and Giggs, but could little to stop Dave Brown's far-post header to make it 3-0.

In the second half FC United manager Karl Marginson made a triple substitution on the hour that saw new boy Nick Platt make his debut for the rebel Manchester club. Platt, a former student at the Liverpool footballing academy arrived via Stalybridge Celtic after spending much of last season turning out for Burnley's reserve side. Though there were no further goals, the home side remained in command throughout, as the match finished with a 3-0 scoreline.

TEAMS:

FC United: Ashton, Taylor, Mortimer (Ormes 61), Spencer (Platt 61), Brown, Coyne, Giggs, Carden (Smith 61), Rudd, Howard, Patterson

St. Helens Town: Nicolson, Reilly, Evans, Sumner (Spendlove 64), Elias, Leyland, Cliff (Webser 72), Hilton, Hatton, Dyson, Howgate (Walker 90)

Attendance: 1,851