Captain Tom Richardson bags two as Man Met firsts take one step closer to the title

Man Met’s first team take one step closer to promotion following a convincing 4-0 win at home against rivals, Liverpool John Moores second team. 

The victory now means Man Met need only one point from their remaining three games of the season to seal the championship. 

Two goals from Captain Tom Richardson helped the team take control with Tom Carr and Luca Radojevic all on target in the first half. 

A sinbin for John Moores Captain and a sending off for their keeper added to their problems, with players seeming to lose their temper with the referee. 

These incidences mixed with a thoroughly dominant performance, on and off the ball by Man Met meant the game was all but over by half time. 

The hosts scored first after just six minutes, a dangerous ball over the top by Dom Robinson was too much to handle for the Liverpool defenders as Tom Carr confidently placed the ball into the far-right corner. 

Just four minutes after the first Man Met struck again. This time a succession of left footed corners by Mark Faflik found the head of his skipper Tom Richardson, who powered the ball into the net to make it 2-0. 

By this point Liverpool John Moores began to grow increasingly frustrated at the referee. A poorly worded complaint by their Captain saw him side-lined for a period. 

But things then went from bad to worse for John Moores as their goalkeeper was sent off after just 20 minutes following further verbal abuse directed at the referee.

This left one of their full backs doing the graveyard shift between the sticks.

Man Met found their third inside 35 minutes as Tom Carr skinned a couple of Liverpool’s defenders. The number 10 then pulled the ball back to goal scorer Richardson, who had his first attempt blocked but finished up with a neat shot to make it 3-0. 

If things weren ot already done and dusted, they were after the fourth. Another skillful run by Tom Carr saw him shoot but have his effort cleared off the line. 

However, Luca Radojevic helped put the game to bed with a beautiful spinning half volley which blasted MMU four up before the break. 

Man Met became a little complacent after the half-time interval, with attacking runs and pressing dropping below their first half standards. 

The highlight of the second half then came from John Moores as their midfielder had an incredible effort, from his own half, tipped over the bar by keeper Prince Osei. The heroic diving save certainly earnt him and his team a clean sheet. 

From here Liverpool John Moores continued to grow into the game. However, the earlier sending off hindered their chances of them ever getting anything from the game as they travelled back to Merseyside with a 4-0 loss. 

NQ spoke to Captain Tom Richardson and right back Jordon Darlington after the game.

He said: “I thought we could have done better in the second half and probably coasted a bit towards the end of the game. We didn’t lose our heads, just kept on with the game.

“Second half I thought we could have just picked it up a bit, so were all a bit disappointed with that but at the end of the day it’s another three points. See it out till the end of the season and then happy days from there.

“I think we we’re always going have hostility, especially playing against us now. We made a dominant start to the season so you’re always going to have teams looking to come out and gun against us so the refs going to be up against it every single game. I think he’s (referee) done the best he can.”

Tom Richardson stated: “We played Edge Hill in the cup who are in the division above us, and we’ve held our own against teams like Leeds Beckett and Uni of. In a higher division I think we would stand our ground to be honest. It’s annoying we’re in the division we’re in now, but we just need to win the league and progress through.

“We said at the start, just press for the first five minutes and I don’t think they’ll be able to handle the press. In training we’ve been working a lot on pressing as a unit especially going forward.

“I think as soon as we enabled that in the game, found they weren’t very comfortable receiving it at the back, we knew we would always create chances and thankfully we scored four in the first half and killed the game from there. The press that we worked on helped us win the game.”

Man Met’s next fixture is at home to second place Liverpool Hope, which could see MMU win promotion to the second Tier of the Men’s Northern division. 

• All credits for photography go to Ben Stiff. Check out his website here.