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United aim to bounce back against basement boys

After Saturday’s disappointing defeat at Buxton, FC United will be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on the league’s bottom club Durham City at Gigg Lane on Saturday afternoon. Craig Phillips provides this preview"¦

The Reds travelled to Buxton last Saturday with an eight game unbeaten streak but were well beaten by the Bucks in a game that saw United fail to get on the score-sheet for the first game in seven after scoring 17 goals in six games.

Karl Marginson’s side will know the importance of bouncing straight back to winning ways when Durham City visit on Saturday. Margy will be looking for his players to react to this defeat and look to build confidence up as they have a run of three big games in just over a week after Saturday’s game.

Saturday’s opponents should not be overlooked but United know they should be winning these types of games before they face Matlock, Hucknall and Bradford in an eight day run which will surely define where the remainder of the season will go.

Despite the expectation, it’s important to keep focussed and everybody knows the potential banana skin of playing against players who could be playing in front of the biggest crowd of their careers so far.

Back to the task in hand - Durham City. The club was originally formed in 1918 but after being denied re-election to the Football league in 1928 ended up folding in 1938, before being reformed in 1950.

The Citizens played in the Northern League from 1952 winning the league title in 1994 and again in 2008. The latter giving them promotion to the NPL first division north; which they managed to win at the first attempt gaining promotion to the Premier Division for the 09-10 season.

But the club has struggled to replicate that form of last season and having had a sponsor withdrawal at the beginning of the season saw an exodus of first team players, leaving the team to field youngsters for most games this season.

The Citizens were cruelly dubbed "the worst team in the country"?? by BBC 1’s Football Focus in February. The programme may have been better focussing on the club’s problems and the commitment of the young players and loyal fans who have turned up game after game even though the club has lost all 28 of its league games this season, showing the true meaning of the word commitment in the game.

The club’s problems got worse when they were deducted six points for fielding a suspended player under a false name, which saw both the player and manager Lee Collins suspended for 15 games.

The club currently prop the league table up, with no wins from all 28 league games and have conceded 137 goals in the league this season.

But FC United fans will know the team are no push over as it took the Reds until the second half to break the deadlock when the clubs met in January, with United only managing to take home a slender 2-1 victory in a hard fought game.

The Citizens have lost five games by just the odd goal this season, all of which were at home. The club’s defeats have been a lot worse on the road where they have lost ten games by four goals or more, including their biggest defeat of the season at Boston United where they lost 10-0.

In their last game, The Citizens went down 4-1 at home to Boston United, although they managed to pull back an early goal to be at 1-1 with the high flying Pilgrims before conceding on the stroke of half-time.

Saturday’s game is the usual 3 o’clock kick off, with admission priced at £7.50 for adults, £5 for concessions and £2 for kids. So get yourself to that football ground and cheer the Reds back onto the winning trail.



First Posted ~ 12:47 Tue 9 Mar 2010
News ID ~ 2760
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021