Good start......good start

Apologies for the lack of updates recently.
Anyway...
Its been a good start, 100% record, goals flying in, very good team performances and also some outstanding individual games from the lads.
The two full backs have been outstanding, esp Matty Taylor at right back, Giggs has come up trumps, as I always believed he would (despite pre season reservations), Rudd has started to bang them in when it counts and the Chaddy/Nugent partnership at the back has been solid.
Hopefully the signing of Phoenix for the left hand side will solve that problem now that Torpey has gone, but then again, Orr did well on Monday at Hyde, and maybe he is worth a go there?
And so onto Chorley again, where we take on Atherton LR, lets hope the club house is as welcoming as last year, that the butties are 2 for £1 again, and the pie and peas are up to the same high standard.
On the pie front, over the past few weeks I have taken in games and sampled the pies at Atherton Colls and LR, both have been top quality (even a free one at LR!!) and so the stakes have been raised this season, the quality of pieage has improved and I for one hope this continues.
More pie updates to follow.

We're heading for Venus

De de de deeeeeee de de de de deeeeeee.
Well here it is. The countdown has begun, as on Sat, FC United begin their 2nd season. This time in the lofty heights of NWCL 1 (how much better does it sound now that the sponsor has gone?) Just one more friendly to go, then its full steam ahead Barcel...erm St Helen's, as the season kicks off at Knowsley Road at 3pm on Sat.
All the nerves and tension starts now.
Does Margy know his best XI?
Can the team live up to last season?
Can we go straight up again?
Will Nugent shave his head in time for Sat?
These questions and more, will all be answered on Sat.
Will there be any surprises on Sat?
Who knows?
But I know one thing that won't be a surprise. That the lads will be backed by a large following all making as much noise as possible.
And you can't say fairer than that can you?

Its a friendly for gawds sake

I attended my 1st FC reserve game last night. Couldn't get to any of the others due to being away, or clashing with the 1st team. I enjoyed it, was a decent game, FC were 2 up at half time against a Unibond team with most of its 1st team playing. They lost 3-2 in the end, was unlucky, but there were mitigating circumstances.
You see FC played most of the 2nd half with 10 men, and finished with 9. Not a dirty game, so nowt to do with red cards, but all to do, in my humble view, with the referee. Being an ex member of the refs union, I don't like to overly criticise, its not an easy thing to do, thankless at times, but some refs just don't help themselves.
What happened was, at half time, the FC ressies boss, the esteemed Mr Tony Cullen, made a number of changes and brought all the subs on. About 15 mins into the 2nd period, one of the FC players hurt himself, and couldn't continue. No problem there, its a friendly, so easily solved. No 9 Gary Edwards re-appeared and took his place up front.
But alas, the ref didn't like this, stopped the game, approached the esteemed Mr Cullen and during a debate (which thankfully for the ref didn't get too heated), the ref, I presume, informed them that Edwards had to come off.
So, the injured player returns to the frey, only to have to come back off as he can hardly walk. At this point Margy, who is watching from the stands, comes onto the pitch to speak to the ref. Still the 10 men play on. During the 2nd half, another player has to come off, FC end the game with 9
A farce.
Now surely all the ref had to do, was agree pre game about roll on roll off subs. If he didn't do that, common sense should have prevailed and he asked the Warrington Town bench if they were ok with Edwards coming back on, I am sure given it was only a friendly, that it would have been, but no, we play on with 10 men. If it was the World Cup final then ok no probs, but a Unibond Div 1 team verses a NWCL Reserves Div 2 team, come on ref, do us all a favour, apply a little common sense to the proceedings.
End of the day, we paid 6 notes to get in, we want to see a fair game.