( 0 ) ( 0 )
 

Villa suffered their first defeat of the season in a game where they had more than enough chances to win, and against a side who had only two serious attempts on goal.

All credit to the home side as they worked very hard to stifle the Villa attack. The first twenty minutes were a total stalemate with no serious chances for either side. Gradually Villa started to get behind the home defence, Damien Stewart put in a dangerous ball from the right which Danny
Dawson just failed to make contact with. Three minutes later they were awarded a free kick for handball just outside the area. Damien Stewarts kick was just over the bar.

Euxton intensified the pressure, Danny Dawson had a shot saved at the foot of the near post by the Norcross keeper. On thirty five minutes Villa had a great chance to open the scoring. A clever flick by Danny Dawson put Liam Conway through but the keeper managed to block the effort.

For the remainder of the half it was all Villa pressure but they were unable to find a way through a resolute home defence. The game had needed an early goal to open it up but on this occasion that was not to be.

The visitors came out for the second half still confident of making the breakthrough, but it was the home side who broke the deadlock. Within four minutes of the restart a ball into the Villa box was only partially cleared and a miss hit shot found the net off the inside of the post. Villa immediately went back on the attack , a good effort from Liam Conway hit the side netting. Norcross nearly caught Villa out again five minutes later when they hit the bar from a free kick.

It was now all out attack from Villa as Norcross packed their box to defend the lead. On sixty five minutes Villa did have the ball in the net, but Damien Stewarts effort was ruled offside. For the rest of the game it was one way traffic as Villa pegged back the home defence. With ten minutes remaining Danny Dawson picked up the ball on the edge of the area only to see his well struck shot come back off the post. The final minutes saw numerous attempts on goal blocked by the home defence.

Not Villa's day, the home side worked extremely hard for their victory and will cause a lot of sides problems, on another day Villa could have scored two or three, but sometimes your luck is out.

Team - Gibbs, McAlister, Brown, O'Loughlin, Crombie,( Winstanley ) L.Conway, Swift, Bradshaw, ( Howard )

              Stewart, Thompson, ( Pillay ) Dawson.