20 mins: Airey penalty 1-0

25 mins: Rochina shot 1-1

38 mins: Diouf shot 1-2

Half time: Rovers 2 United 1

53 mins: Rochina shot 1-3

69 mins: Donaldson shot 2-3

77 mins: Airey shot 3-3

87 mins: Perch header 4-3

90 mins: Potts shot 4-4

Full time: Rovers 4 United 4

The reserves ended their league campaign on Monday by sharing eight goals with their Rovers counterparts - having taken part in similar local goal gluts this season across in the North West.

Making their first visit to the Leigh Sports Village that is home to Rovers stiffs and Leigh Centurions Rugby League team, the Magpies took the lead when Ryan Donaldson was barged over in the box.
  

Striker Phil Airey converted the resultant penalty, but within five minutes Rovers replied, Spanish -born forward Ruben Rochina chipping Tim Krul after being put through by Mame Biram Diouf. The home side then went ahead when Rochina returned the compliment to play in Diouf, who rounded Krul before slotting home. 

Rovers increased their lead after half-time and it was Rochina again, who managed to squeeze the ball over the line following a poorly cleared corner. United pulled the score back to 2-3 though, thanks to an amazing individual effort from Ryan Donaldson - running from inside his own half before tucking shot past Jake Kean in the Rovers goal.

Airey then netted his second of the game and eleventh of the season to level at 3-3, controlling a James Tavernier centre before swivelling and finding the bottom corner. And when James Perch popped up with his second reserve goal of the campaign - this one a late header - our winless run of six away games looked like coming to an end. 

However, Rovers had the last word, when Michael Potts hit a curling 20-yard effort that eluded Krul and made it 4-4, bringing the curtain down on a season during which Peter Beardsley used no less than 46 players in nineteen league games.

After a season when six of United's nine home games were played behind closed doors and an increasing number of fixtures were scheduled for afternoons, the future of reserve team football as a spectator sport / entertainment remains in severe doubt.

And precisely what hoofing a ball around on a windswept training pitch in front of a silent handful of observers prepares the next generation of professional footballers for is debatable. 

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