Ossett Town fall to last-gasp FC United of Manchester winner

31 August 2009

By Nick Rigg

Ossett Town 1
FC United of Manchester 2

OSSETT Town let a half-time lead slip to fall to a crushing defeat against FC United of Manchester in front of a bumper crowd at Ingfield.

FC United skipper David Chadwick powered home from point blank range in injury time to give the visitors all three points in the UniBond Premier Division, and leave Town stuck with no points to show from their two Bank Holiday weekend fixtures.

It looked good for the hosts in the first-half as Andy Lee capitalised on a mistake by Rob Nugent to run through on goal and slip the ball by the on-rushing Sam Ashton to give Town the lead after just six minutes.

Chances came at both ends in an entertaining game, Aaron Hollindrake forcing Ashton into a fine save, while the counter-attacking of the visitors led to chances for Adam Carden and Phil Marsh.

Town edged the first half and deserved their lead, but the visitors, backed by a huge and vocal following, came flying out of the traps in the second half as they looked to get back in the game.

Ben Deegan twice came close for United before he made it third time lucky by heading in a cross ten minutes after the resumption to level.

The visitors were dominating large spells of the second half but Town's Lee almost saw his deep cross palmed into his own net by Ashton as Town continued to look dangerous in their rare second-half attacks.

Deegan had another chance to double his tally for the afternoon when he lashed a low effort by Liam Sutcliffe in the Town goal.

The chances started to dry up in the last 15 minutes as both sides made changes, but it was skipper Chadwick who was first to a cross inside the Town box and he made no mistake from close range to give the visitors maximum points.

Town: Sutcliffe, Hay, Tonks, Clayton, Dominic Riordan, James Riordan (c), McGuire, Hall, Hollindrake, Lee, Hardaker. Subs: Thornton, Douglas, Kane, Hargreaves, Kerr.

FC United: Ashton, Carden, Garner, Warrender, Chadwick (c), Nugent, Roca, Carden, Deegan, Wright, Marsh.