City Give Swedes the Runaround

MCFC U18s 7(Seven) – 3 Helsing Borg Youngsters


The sun was shining and City’s youngsters piled in the goals. City’s Swedish opposition looked at least one year older; either that or they have good greenhouses in Sweden as they came with a fair sized team. That size was evident as City went one nil down courtesy of a header from a corner in the eighth minute. City equalized just before the quarter hour when David Ball sent a good cross-field pass from the left to Angelos Tsiaklis who steadied himself and fired into the net. Angelos then turned provider for Robert Mak to fire a powerful toe poker into the net. Five minutes before the break City got a third when Andrew Tutte combined with Donal McDermott on the left for Donal to send in a deep cross and James Poole headed well into the far corner. City’s two goal cushion only lasted a couple of minutes however when Helsing Borg were given too much space on the left with a strong centre well finished past Filip Mentel in goal.
City changed to a 4-3-3 formation for much of the second half and so they suffered from lack of penetration. They did increase their lead when Ball played a good ball through for Mak to get the second of his brace of goals. City’s fifth will be a disputed one as it looked like Ball had crossed inside the box and then took a wicked deflection into the corner of the net.
Within a minute Helsing had reduced the arrears again to 5 – 3, this time from the right with a long low curling shot allowed to sneak in at the far post. City wrapped the scoring up in the final ten minutes with a headed corner from Ben Mee and a coolly taken chipped finish by James Poole.


City: Mentel(GK), Trippier, Morris, Mee, Ramsey, Tsiaklis, Weiss, Kay, I Daly, D Ball, McDermott.


Subs(All Used): Chantler, Clegg, Tutte, Carter, Mak, Poole.

City Out Shrimp Morecambe

Morecambe FC 1 – 2 MCFC Reserves

City’s reserves’ stepped up a couple of divisions when they met newly promoted league two members, Morecambe FC at Christie Park yesterday. The ground has proved quite favourable for City by gaining favourable results against Blackburn reserves and Morecambe in another pre-season friendly as well in the past. So a fortunate victory was not such a surprise as Morecambe were by far the better side, but City blocked determinedly and Kasper Schmeichel pulling off a couple of good saves. Perhaps City fans would wish that Channel M still had their weekly round up programme so they could see the top class goals that Paul Marshall and Ched Evans scored.
The first ten minutes saw City start quite brightly with a good header on target from a corner and a short corner played in that fell to Garry Breen who put his shot over the bar from ten yards.
Five minutes later saw Morecambe win two corners in succession with the second one being cleared of the line by Javan Vidal from a header by Dave Artell.
Within two minutes of that scare City took the lead when a strong burst from Curtis Obeng on the right laid of a good ball to Paul Marshall who was twenty five yards out and took one touch before lashing his shot in thunderbolt fashion into the bottom corner of the net.
City then seemed to sit back on that lead and Morecambe continued to pressure which led to more corners and free kicks which both Artell and ex-City youngster, Jim Bentley should have done better with, but Kasper’s flapping antics at these dead balls did not help the situation either.
Morecambe were the ones to make the changes at half time with goalkeeper Steven Drench making his first appearance since dislocating his elbow against York in the semi-final play offs.
Within ten minutes of the re-start Morecambe were level when the defence were static from a Adam Yates cross from the right to allow Wayne Curtis to sneak in at the back post and head into the bottom corner, Kasper was able to get a slight hand to it, but ultimately not enough to stop it creeping in.
Morecambe’s lead only lasted four minutes as a quick free kick by Breen just outside our penalty area when most players were inside the City half, found Ched Evans who turned to goal and saw Drench off his line and sent a delightful forty yard lob into the top corner of the net to send Evans celebrate quite energetically.
Morecambe continued to press and Curtis went close with a twenty yard drive and Kasper pulled off a tremendous point blank save from Carl Baker; but City held out to record their third win out of four games of this pre-season.
I thought we would have seen a slightly older line up than previously because the opposition was a step up, but apart from Marc Laird, who was more of a hindrance in the Centre of midfield and Kasper who looked shaky for most of the match and his rush of the blood distributions, it was the same under eighteen line up that looks a lot more solid than ten days ago at Hyde United.
I am sure it will be an even younger side however when City face new pontin’s league members’ Morecambe next month, lets hope for the same result.


Morecambe: Davies(GK)(Drench 46)(GK), Yates, Adams(Howard 46), Artell(Grand 70), Bentley(Capt.), Stanley(Mclachlan 87), Baker, Sorvel, Curtis(Newby 77), Twiss, Burns(Hunter 62).


City: Schmeichel(GK), Obeng, Vidal, MacDonald(McDermott 58), Breen(Capt.), M Daly, Clayton, Laird, Evans, Moore, Marshall.

Subs: Mentel(GK), Ramsey, Kay, D Ball.

Att: 1155.

City Bounce Back from Defeat

Curzon Ashton 1 - 3 MCFC Reserves

After playing two reserve pre-season friendlies against two Blue Square North Conference sides; City reserves faced lower league opposition in the guise of first division north Unibond league members, Curzon Ashton at their very modern Tameside Stadium. City, just like last Wednesday took an early lead from Adam Clayton, but although they were pegged back, they did not fold like last week and further goals from David Ball and Ched Evans sealed the victory.
City took the lead in the third minute when Ched Evans went up to challenge the ball with the goalkeeper and it was not fully cleared and it fell to Adam Clayton who fired into the far corner to make it one nil.
City started with Karl Moore on the right of midfield and it was not really working and it was allowing Ashton’s left midfielder, Nick Allen, too much space and had he delivered more telling crosses could have embarrassed City earlier. As it was it was the twenty fourth minute when Clayton made a clumsy challenge about twenty five yards from goal. Ashton’s Michael Norton was able to fire a low hard free kick into the bottom corner of the net past Filip Mentel in goal.
Their lead lasted just three minutes however when Clayton made up for his mistake by sending a lovely diagonal ball for David Ball to chase on to and put past the goalkeeper.
City had made a couple of changes at half time which helped the balance of the side. So it was no surprise to see City score a third; this time from the penalty spot. The penalty came about when substitute Michael Daly made a strong mazy run into the box but was brought down by a late tackle. Ched Evans coolly stepped forward to dispatch the resulting dead ball into the net.
Curzon Ashton never really tested Mentel during the game, but even though City should have been given two other blatant penalties, a five one score line to City would have been very flattering to them as they are still not quite firing on all cylinders.
City travel to Christie Park this Saturday, the home of newly promoted league two side Morecambe, for their next pre-season friendly. That should provide a much sterner test, but I am sure City’s side will contain a few more older players in that fixture.


Curzon Ashton: Carnel(GK), Thompson, German, Watson, Jones, Ball, Horrocks, Worsley, Norton, Ogoo, Allen.

Subs: Shiels, Mitten, Gilligan, Riley, Brown.


City: Mentel(GK), Obeng, McGivern, Mee, Breen, Clayton, Moore, D Ball, Evans, Marshall, McDermott.

Subs: Vidal, Daly, Poole, Kay.

Hyde Show City a Few Home Truths

Hyde United 4 - 2 MCFC Reserves

City’s annual pre-season fixture against Hyde United started brightly for the blues, but ultimately ended in heavy defeat as the Tigers showed much more determination to win the game.
The star of the night was Hyde’s former Bury striker, Gareth Seddon who scored a very impressive hat-trick. Seddon is a player who can no longer play league football as he took an insurance pay out due to injury. That is not to say that he no longer has the ability to play league football as last night’s display of the Tiger’s top scorer who managed thirty seven goals in forty seven appearances last season clearly shows that Hyde have a real talent at their level to fire them up the league next season; they perhaps like City might worry about their leaky defence.
City took the lead as early as the fifth minute when a good solo effort from Karl Moore; playing in the unusual role of striker, cut in from the left to fire a twenty yard shot into the net.
City had doubled their lead within two minutes when a strong run by Javan Vidal down the right gave him room to produce a good deep cross that Adam Clayton did not connect fully with, but somehow got past the former Bury goalkeeper, Craig Dootson. I can only assume he lost the flight of the ball in the evening sun.
The referee, Mr Roberts was allowing the game to flow, possibly more than he should as both sides put tackles in that were not necessarily dirty, but a bit mis-timed.
Hyde pulled a goal back ten minutes after our second when Seddon was given too much space to fire a strong shot from the edge of the area to beat Filip Mentel in the City goal.
Five minutes later Hyde were level, and yet again Seddon was given too much space as he again fired from the edge of the area to beat Mentel.
Hyde took the lead two minutes before the break when a resulting corner brought on from a fine save by Mentel from a long range deflected shot was tipped over the bar. The corner came in from the left and was flicked on to the far post where Dale Johnson was left free to steal in and score.
Both sides played a different line ups as the second half wore on, but it was to be Hyde that got the breakthrough yet again and this time it was Seddon for his hat-trick goal when the ball was not cleared and Gareth was able to run in and score.
Having not seen the game at Stalybridge on Saturday, I cannot compare performances, but last night’s showing struck me that although both talented players in their own right, Paul Marshall and Michael Daly did not gel as a midfield pairing and Garry Breen and Clayton McDonald left far too big gaps at the back.
With this only being the second reserve pre-season friendly of the summer, there is still plenty of time to iron these problems out before the reserve and academy season starts.


Hyde: Dootson, Brass, Scott, Davis, Band, Caldecott, Simm, Warner, Johnson, Seddon, Clee.


Subs: Taylor, Tipton, Pickford, Gedman, Cowan.


City: Mentel, Obeng, Mee, McDonald, Breen, M Daly, Clayton, Moore, Evans, Marshall, Vidal.

Subs: McGivern, Kay, McDermott, Ball, Poole, Mouritsen.


Next Match: Curzon Ashton(Away) Sat 21st July 3pm.