HYDE UNITED 1, FC UNITED 0
Left-back Javid Swaby-Neavin won’t be returning his borrowed boots after scoring his first goal for Hyde United.
The strike, the only one of the game, earned the Tigers a 1-0 win against local rivals FC United which lifted them to eighth place in Northern Premier League, premier division.
Swaby-Neavin, 21, who made one first-team appearance for Oldham Athletic, later revealed he had scored the matchwinner with borrowed boots.
“I tore my boots in the league game at Morpeth and Callum Spooner gave me a pair of his to wear but, after scoring with them, he is not getting them back,” he joked.
Swaby-Neavin, signed in the summer from National League side Halifax Town, provided the cutting edge his team lacked.
His decisive strike came in the 36th minute after he was released on an overlapping run down the left by a fabulous diagonal ball from Callum Spooner.
Swaby-Neavin cut in from the left and fired home, though there was a suspicion of it being an own goal as a defender, attempting to clear, sliced the ball into the roof of the net.
“The shot was on target and it is definitely my goal,” he said.
In the one-sided opening period, Hyde played FC United off the mark, but all they had to show for their efforts was Swaby-Neavin’s goal.
Captain Brad Roscoe and Jack Redshaw both hit the frame of the goal and visiting goalkeeper Dan Lavercombe made super saves to twice deny Eddie Brown and foil Redshaw.
“In the first half, we played very well but could not finish our chances. We should have been well ahead,” explained manager Nick Spooner.
The second half was altogether different, scrappy and disjointed with neither side having a meaningful chance.
But Spooner was pleased with the way in which his side stuck to its game plan.
“At half time we spoke about managing the game which we did,” he explained.
“It was another clean sheet (fourth of the season) and a great team effort. We stayed disciplined.”
It was a niggly second period and at the final whistle it spilled over with a melee among the two sets of players which Spooner put down to the emotion of the night with FC United having a sizeable away following in a season’s best crowd of 962.