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The buzz round the
place has been all about the very entertaining brand of
football on show down at the villa this season, so it was
almost inevitable that the job would hit the buffers sooner
or later, and on Saturday, the smallest crowd of the season
so far bore witness to drab and sterile affair.
There was little early indication of the
tedium to come when the match got off to an electric, and
for Villa disastrous, start. Freckleton won a free kick
right from the kick off. Mark Fiddler chose to have a shot
on goal, and although his effort was fairly tame, the old
maxim ‘at least work the keeper’ paid off, as the normally
rock solid Ross Baxter, already looking round to see if
there was a quick distribution on, to his and everybody
else’s disbelief, chucked the ball into his own net. It
happens, (but not usually to RB) and no-one was about to
blame the guy who has, more than any other, been
instrumental in Villa’s success of last season. And in fact
just minutes later he kept his side in touch with a
tremendous save with feet when the defence was breached
again.
Shaken but not stirred, Villa set about
redressing the balance, and sure enough within ten minute
parity was restored when Villa capitalised on a free kick of
their own. Gavin Cooper swung the ball to the far post
where Lee Chambers, with no angle on goal headed it back
across to where Sam Bolton rose unchallenged to head home
from six yards.
And that’s pretty much as good as it got
for both sides, and indeed the disappointed onlookers. The
match was devoid of flowing football and although the home
side had the greater territorial advantage, the Freckleton
centre back pairing, who along with Craig Chambers for Villa
could be absolved from any criticism for the poor showing,
coped easily with the blunt attacking edge, and neither
goalkeeper was seriously tested.
The situation was not helped for the
home side when the Freckleton, obviously having seen Villa
trying to play against ten men in the past, contrived to get
a man sent off early in the second half. Sure enough, the
change seemed to affect Villa more than their opponents, and
the playmakers hardly featured. Not until the last five
minutes at least, when Villa were able finally to make their
numerical advantage tell and end the match with a flurry
which saw the ball cleared off the line on two occasions.
The match finished on a controversial
note however. Skipper Darren Davies, taking matters into his
own hands, drove forward and unleashed a powerful drive at
goal. The Freckleton centre back diving full length palmed
the ball away, right in front of the assistant referee who
immediately signalled for a penalty. However, the referee,
who overall had had a good game, although on the blind side,
chose to ignore his colleague and seconds later blew for
full time.
Not one to savour then for all sorts of
reasons. It’s clear that the new mood of respecting the
referee has not filtered down to certain peripatetic
individuals, and the man in black had a lot to put up with.
Villa may well be missing several key individuals – Loughlin,
Heald, Whittaker, Craddock all injured and Dunn unavailable
– but those on show are all first team regulars and should
have enough to win their home games as a minimum must, but
goals are proving hard to come by at the moment and Mark
McDonnell must be tearing what’s left of his hair out. Away
to champions Garstang on Tuesday evening, so not much time
to dwell on things.
Villa Line-up: Baxter C.Chambers, Davies,
L.Chambers, Bolton (Clitheroe 72), Woodman (Dickinson 67),
Bingham, Kirkopatrick, cooper, Atherton, Shone (Briggs 84).
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