FC United Of Manchester 2-0 Belper Town

FC United Of Manchester 2-0 Belper Town

Northern Premier League

Saturday 3rd December 2022

A few weeks ago, I couldn’t work out whether I was following Jack Degruchy or he was following me!

We were both at York’s game against Hyde in the FA Youth Cup, then at a few games involving Doncaster Rovers (where he’s currently on loan at FC United from) and even when I went to Knaresborough Town for a Northern Counties East League game about a month ago, he popped up two minutes later.

Having seen so much of him, and got to know he’s a sound lad (by far the most important thing in football), it dawned on me that I’d not actually seen him play yet; despite living in Doncaster I missed almost all of Rovers’ pre-season as I was ‘up north’ in Scotland watching a ton of games.

So, it made perfect sense to go to this game and finally watch him at last - and, playing at right-back, he made a decent enough first-impression, screening well when he needed to (very noticeable), setting up a chance for Regan Linney after half-time, and even rushing in for a difficult chance at the back-post at one point which he wasn’t able to convert.

Degruchy wasn’t the only name familiar to me in FC United’s team because they also have Alex Wollerton who was at Gainsborough last year, previously on the books at Barnsley with Keaton Ward (ex FCUM loanee and someone I’ll be watching next Tuesday for Kettering) and came through the academy at Leeds United with Oliver Sarkic - who, to add some trivia to this piece, was the first ever player to kick a ball at Broadhurst Park as he took the kick-off when FC United played Benfica in May 2015.

There were a few familiar names in Belper’s line-up which further sparked my interest too - including a big DRFC connection in Harry Middleton who graduated from the youth ranks to make 79 appearances for Rovers’ first team in all competitions. That’s the most any scholar has made since the academy was reformed nearly 20 years ago by the way.

Harry (or ‘PC Middleton’ as he’s now known having recently joined South Yorkshire Police) played the full 90 minutes with Jacob Gratton - who impressed me towards the end of last year when he was on loan at Farsley Celtic, further up the pitch - and although it was good to watch Gratts again, this wasn’t a game where he was particularly able to stand out due to how things panned out.

To top things off, the Nailers announced on Friday that they’d signed Paulo Aguas and Jay Glover on loan from Sheffield Wednesday - the latter of whom made a decent impression when the Owls played at Wakefield in pre-season, is someone who I’ve been monitoring ever since that night, and also has a fantastic tan (unbelievably good) for this time of year.

Belper went into this game rooted to the foot of the Northern Premier League table, well adrift of safety, albeit on the back of a brilliant win over Morpeth Town last time out which ought to have given them a confidence boost.

Nevertheless, infront of probably the biggest crowd they’ll play infront of this year, they were ‘too deep’ for much of the 90 minutes and unable to seriously threaten FC United who looked comfortable without necessarily being spectacular.

After a goalless first half in which the hosts were on top but unable to make a breakthrough, the home bench were about to turn to Alex Wollerton who stripped into his kit, was ready to come on and just waiting for a break in play when Fin Armstrong weaved his way inside from the left flank and sent a low shot past Belper ‘keeper Harrison Davison-Hale to break the deadlock just before the hour mark.

Wollerton got to sit down for another 10 minutes as a result of that goal (unlucky - especially on this freezing cold day), and whilst Belper mustered up a few chances and what could best be described as bits of ‘half-pressure’ as they attempted to force an equaliser, it wasn’t to be for them as Regan Linney - one of the most highly-regarded strikers at Step 3 level right now, demonstrated great technique to claim his 17th goal of the season deep into injury-time.

Although it was a game that FC United no doubt expected to win beforehand and they’ll be pleased with the points (job done and onto the next one), Belper will be disappointed with how they performed - irrespective of the occasion or being down at the bottom of the table. They struggled to get the ball up the pitch, were too deep for much of the 90 minutes, and that only changed when Jay Glover was brought on for the last 20 minutes.

His ‘cameo’ was a good little example of what he’s all about as a player. It’s why I rate him; he got on the ball when he could and tried to make something happen - especially with one weaving run where he kept the ball but was eventually forced wide, his passing was okay, he got into a few high and hurtful positions and out of possession he showed the same energy to recover his position quite a few times, and it was noticeable that both him and Paulo Aguas (who did a reasonably okay job in containing FC United's threat down that flank) were eager to make a good impression.

Their desire and how they applied themselves couldn’t be faulted, even if the result wasn’t to be on this occasion, and it’ll hopefully be enough to see them both included in the starting line-up next week when Belper host Marske United in what’s already a ‘must win’ game if they’re to improve their chances of hauling themselves off the bottom and avoid relegation.

FC United’s next game is away at Atherton Collieries and, depending on the weather, I might be turning up to see Jack Degruchy once again - but I’ve not decided where I'm going yet.