Nuneaton Town 2 FC United of Manchester 2

Saturday 21st November, 2015;

Match report courtesy of Nuneaton News;

Rob Duffy grabbed a second-half brace to ensure Nuneaton Town came back from 2-0 down at home to a spirited FC United of Manchester team this afternoon.

After a 5-1 win against Telford last time out, their fifth straight victory in the Vanarama National League North, the Boro were expected to start well against a FC United of Manchester team that had lost their last seven outings in the league.

Proving the old adage of football is a funny old game, though, FC United were the quickest out of the blocks, testing Jordan Smith with a couple of half chances early on, before finally beating him in the 13th minute.
The goal was well tucked away by Tom Greaves, but he cannot take all of the credit, that has to go to Dean Stutt who simply cut the Boro defence in two with a sublime through ball, leaving his number nine clean through to face the Nuneaton keeper.

The goal was not a jolt to the system for the league leaders as United continued to enjoy the better of the play after the opener, playing it around much like Nuneaton have done for most of the campaign.
They were nearly rewarded for their approach with a second goal on the half hour mark, but luckily for Kevin Wilson and his team the woodwork came to their rescue, as a fantastic free-kick from George Thomson clipped the bar with Smith beaten.

Nuneaton did not look like a team who were riding high on the crest of a five-match winning run and were thankful to be going in at the break just one down.

That goal was nearly cancelled out just minutes after the restart, ironically from a near-identical move to the opening goal.
But where Greaves had managed to tuck his effort past Boro’s Smith, Williams could only push it past David Carnell – and the far post, the finish not matching the through ball from Rob Duffy.

The Boro were punished for that miss not long after as once again they were undone by a set-piece.
A free-kick from deep was sent in by Adam Thurston, with Harry Winter doing the rest as he headed past Smith to double the lead.

The goal in the first half was not met by any sort of Nuneaton response – but the second goal had them reacting.
Their renewed threat saw them halve the deficit just under the hour mark as Rob Duffy headed home with a neat effort, Carnell in the FC United goal was left stationary as the ball nestled into the back of the net.

Nuneaton continued to press, but did not look threatening enough to force a leveller – until stoppage time.
First, Callum Chettle saw his goal-bound effort come back off the post.
Then, after Joe Maguire was bundled over in the box, Duffy was able to step-up and draw the Boro level from the resulting penalty.

It was a cool finish that ended a lacklustre showing from Nuneaton – one they still came through unscathed, though.
A sign of a Championship winning team?
Only time will tell…

NUNEATON TOWN: J.Smith, Clifton, C.Keane (Reid 64), Lane, Maguire, Morgan, Chettle, Byrne, Whitehouse (Daniels 81) Williams (Harewood 77), Duffy.
Subs not used: De La Paz, J.Keane

FC UTD of MANCHESTER: Carnell, Thurston, Brownhill, Sheridan, Stutt, Ashworth, Fallon (Brown, 89), Winter, Greaves (Patterson 72), Thomson, Madely (Daniels 72)
Subs not used: Wolfenden, Lindfield.

Attendance: 1,167