Yesterday evening Man United reserves were in action in the final of the Lancashire Senior Cup, beating Bolton Wanderers reserves 1-0. Kiko Macheda (who has played a bit for the first team) hit a very late winning goal, which meant that Man United had retained the cup.

A very tight match between two teams who have a good reserve team looked like it was going to go to penalties but with only four minutes left, Macheda scored the one and only goal.

There weren’t that many chances throughout the match. The first notable chance came in the 22nd minute when Bolton’s midfielder Mark Davies’ powerful shot had to bring out a great save by United’s Ben Amos.

United also had a couple of shots at goal, Magnus Eikrem and Zoran Tosic both tried to put United 1-0 up.
Bolton nearly went a goal up just before half time, Mustapha Riga just managed to get ahead of United’s James Chester but Amos was aware of it and he ran off the line and managed to beat Riga to the ball.

Second half and it was Bolton who had the first chance. Davies scuffed his shot, which just went past Amos’ post. It wasn’t all Bolton though; it was a very tight game.

A worrying moment came during the second half when Tosic had to be brought off with a twisted ankle- hopefully it isn’t serious. Josh King was brought on for Tosic and he was testing the Bolton defence straight away.

Bolton had a claim for a penalty when Corry Evans had a strike hit him on the hand at point blank range, the referee turned down the appeals.

Bolton’s Riga gave away a free kick four minutes from the end when he needlessly went in high on United’s Cameron Stewart. United won the match from the resulting free kick, which Eikrem took, and Macheda scored.

Macheda got to Eikrem’s free kick but his header hit the crossbar but he was there to header in the rebound.

The game finished 1-0 and Man United’s reserves are looking good, one or two have already made it into the first team and I am sure that more will.