It was not the best of days for Manchester United’s academy loanees yesterday, although some fared better than others.
It was certainly a day to forget for young goalkeeper Elyh Harrison, who saw four goals go past him as Curzon Ashton crushed Chester.
He could do nothing about the first, but it was his mistake that led to the second when he gave the ball straight to the Curzon centre forward, who tapped it home to go 2-0 up after 20 minutes.
Harrison then went the wrong way in trying to save a penalty and there was little he could do to prevent the fourth from being rifled in by Buckley-Ricketts.
Other than that, there was little the United man did wrong and he pulled off a string of good saves to keep the score from reaching cricket proportions.
Another loanee keeper, Radek Vitek, also saw his side defeated, as BW Linz went down 2-1 to Hartberg in the Austrian Bundesliga.
While neither goal was down to the United man, he will be disappointed as the result sees Hartberg leapfrog ahead of the Blau-Weiss, pushing them into the bottom half of the table.
Tom Wooster, also a keeper, fared no better than the other two. His Farsley Celtic side were trounced 3-0 by Hereford.
Despite the scoreline, Wooster was arguably one of Farsley’s better players on the day and nearly got an assist when a smart throw out found Campton-Sturridge on the halfway line, but the forward’s attempt to chip the opposing keeper narrowly missed the goal.
Promising young right back James Nolan also saw defeat as Inverness Thistle crashed to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Dumbarton in the Scottish League 1.
The only loanee to see his side get a point yesterday was Sonny Aljofree, playing for Accrington Stanley.
The Owd Reds played out a 0-0 draw with Walsall in League Two, with the United defender himself coming the closest to breaking the deadlock.
Pushing forward intelligently to collect a long throw from Batty, Aljofree fired a shot at the back post that was well saved by the Walsall keeper.