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Saviour Carden

17/ 1/2008

FC UNITED remained in the UniBond First Division North football league play-off places with a tight 2-1 home win over Chorley on Saturday, writes Tony Howard.

The reds had a late Simon Carden strike to thank for the victory after the Magpies were reduced to 10 men in the first half following a daft push from Gavin-Lee Ellison.

He has a double-barrelled name but he did not quite give them both to Jerome Wright. It was more a case of handbags at 3.15pm than anything else but the referee was left with no option but to reach for a red.

Chorley adapted well and FC struggled until Rory Patterson shook off his early disinterest to smash in a free kick.

The visitors battled back with a cracking equaliser from Steve Burke and the signs looked ominous as United new boy Micha ‘Sacre’ Bleau flapped in central defence.

United huffed and puffed until saviour Carden came off the bench and finally broke the deadlock with 15 minutes to go.

It was a scrappy affair, which summed up the game perfectly. Carden bundled in at the back post to the obvious relief of the 2,011 crowd.

Carden was again involved late on when he won a penalty but Patterson’s spot kick rebounded off the post. Thankfully, it did not matter as the indifferent reds held on to move up to fourth place in the table.

United visit basement club Radcliffe Borough on Saturday, January 19, kick-off 3pm. On the gate admission costs £7 for adults, £4 for concessions and £2 for under-16s.