Sam Mather scores match-saving goal on full senior debut – Man United News And Transfer News

3

Manchester United academy star Sam Mather scored his first professional goal on Saturday against Oxford City.

Currently on loan at Rochdale, Mather made his first start in senior football and repaid the manager’s faith by scoring the equalising goal in the 77th minute to earn Rochdale a point.

After falling behind 1-2, Mather’s goal saw the match finish 2-2 and save Rochdale’s blushes against rock bottom Oxford City.

Arriving late into the box, Mather ran onto the end of a cut back to side foot home from eight yards.

See more

Sam Mather with his first goal in professional football yesterday 👊#RAFC pic.twitter.com/x28kbwBXsg

— Rochdale AFC (@officiallydale) March 10, 2024

Mather had another good effort earlier in the match when he collected the ball inside the box before shimmying past two defenders and flashing a shot across the face of goal and wide.

The 19-year-old operated in an inside right midfield role before moving to his more natural left wing spot where he would score his goal.

It was an impressive performance that the youngster can be proud of as he combined well down the right wing with Cian Hayes before switching to the left.

Despite Mather’s good individual performance, Rochdale manager Jimmy McNulty wasn’t as pleased with the overall result.

After going ahead early, Rochdale conceded twice in the first half before Mather’s eventual equalising goal late on.

McNulty said, “We’re disappointed overall if I’m being honest, with the goals we conceded.

“In a game when you go ahead and you’re having chances, you feel like the second ones coming.”

McNulty was impressed with his team’s resilience to fight their way back into the match.

“We had to battle against the flow of how the day started to go and I think the one shining light is the competitiveness that remained from us to not run away from that battle when it was looking and sounding tough.”

Dropping points to bottom of the table Oxford City was a disappointing result for Rochdale, but on a personal level Mather can be happy with his full senior debut and will hope he did enough to earn a place in McNulty’s starting XI on Tuesday at home to Woking.