We were forced to make one change from the usual eleven with Francis-Angol getting a rare start as Hammell nursed his niggling ankle knock.
United kicked off in a strangely quiet stadium but after 7 minutes the away support made platy of noise when Hateley’s cross along the 18 yard line was missed by a host of defenders before falling to Higdon in space 14 yards out. The striker calmly fired beyond Cierzniak to deliver a great start to the evening.
The cheers for the opener had hardly subsided before we were treated to a goal of the highest quality. Cummins whipped the ball from the danger area up the left touchline to Ojamaa. A neat turn away from his marker let him spot Humphrey bursting through on the inside right channel and an exquisite cross field pass found the winger. Humphrey collected and let fly from the angle of the box and the ball soared into the net. He’ll be lucky to better that strike in the rest of his career.
The home defence looked unsettled (no surprise) and we threatened a few more times before the break. At the other end United were restricted to a few speculative long range efforts and a couple of free kicks to keep Randolph busy but they got their first real opportunity in 36 minutes when our defence slipped up to allow Daly possession of a long crossed ball. He took the chance to reduce our lead to one at half time.
Randolph’s fingers tipped a long range shot from Rankin over the bar shortly after the second period got underway but Murphy replied in kind at the other end. We had an escape when Russell whipped a low ball across the face our our goal but thankfully not touch came. Skacel should have score the equaliser moments later but he managed to scoop high from close range. United were now in control.
Chance after chance fell to United as we were forced back. We seemed unable to keep the ball and any long clearances were soon returned. Russell gave us some hope when he lumped an effort over Randolph’s bar before it cleared the stand. Ojamaa’s last action before Carswell replaced him with ten minutes remaining was to square to Murphy to offer the chance of a low drive – the keeper got a hand to it.
Corners and long range efforts piled into our box and shots were blocked by desperate defenders. An offside flag saved us with only a couple of minutes left and we survived. Our first half goals were enough to earn the points and Humphrey’s effort deserved to win any match.
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