I am at once discouraged, disappointed, encouraged, and excited. This game presented such a wealth of emotions that it’s hard to separate them at times. To begin with, WE OWN OUR OWN STADIUM and it actually has now hosted league football. That’s big. Like huge. Massive, in fact. As a newish owner of this team, I can’t discount the work of those who came before me to make this happen and the benefits that ground will give to our club going forward.

The second part of this is, of course, the game. We all know that our boys fell 2-1 to local rivals Stockport County FC and, frankly, it sounds like it was a deserved result for both sides. As I talked about in Saturday’s recap, this is another loss that is both discouraging and encouraging. If you had thought of a double promotion before the season began, you are likely discouraged, as the boys have quite the hill to climb already despite the season being only two games old. Can it happen? Absolutely, but results need to start going our way and winnable games need to actually, you know, start being won.

But if you were like most of us and thought securing a spot in the mid table and securing our spot in the league was the most pressing goal this year? You are again encouraged. The Rebels came out fighting and, despite giving up two second half goals as the Hatters piled on the pressure, they fought back and nearly took a point from this game. That’s encouraging and shows that FCUM will not be intimidated by this level of football and that they have a team more than capable of fighting at this level. Don’t forget, this was nearly a win (or at worst a draw) against a team that added nearly two dozen players this offseason in a bid for promotion. Our boys hung with them and proved more than capable adversaries and that’s certainly encouraging.

So what happened today? In front of a packed house, the game started brightly enough with both sides trying to establish themselves in the game. The first real chance of the game was also produced the first goal of the game in the 25th minute. Following a poorly cleared free kick, Rory Fallon latched onto the ball and rocketed it goalward, beating the Stockport keeper and giving the Rebels a 1-0 lead. Rory will go down in history for that one, scoring the first league goal in Broadhurst Park history.

That was all she wrote for the first half, as FC United took a 1-0 lead into the half. At the start of the second half, FC United again came out attacking but, just a few minutes into the second half, the game started to shift with Stockport County ensuring they got more of the game. As the game turned more and more aggressive, with yellow cards on both sides for strong tackles, Stockport County got what can only be considered a fair equalizer on a curling effort from Calum Dyson in the 66th minute.

With the game hanging finely in the balance at 1-1 with under half an hour left, Stockport continued to push forward looking for a winner and they got just that in the 74th minute from Kayode Odejayi on a header off of a Stockport corner. It had, truthfully, been just a matter of time.

After some substitutions to bring on some fresh, attacking legs, FC United again seemed to have gained a footing in the game. After a series of corners resulted in nothing, FC United entered stoppage time looking to gain something from the game. However, those efforts were ended by the whistle, but not before FC put one final chance from a free kick close but over the bar.

The game had ended and, despite an announced crowd of 3,199, our boys had come up just short.

However, as I mentioned in the open, this was a spirited game and our boys showed that they could compete in this league and they more than belong in this league. The results will start to fall their way and we are in for an exciting season, that is for sure.

Last 10 games form: LL

Current table position: 20th

So what’s up next? Our boys travel to Leek CSOB for a friendly on Thursday night. Be on the lookout for the “Know Your Enemy” report in the near future.