Result - 14/10/06

Euxton Villa (0)  1 Poulton Town (1)  2

Briggs

This was easily Villa's worst performance of the season and they can have no complaints at the final outcome of the game.

In the early stages of the game Villa did create chances. On five minutes Sam Shone played John Winstanley through, only for him to be ruled offside.

With eight minutes played John Winstanley set up a shooting opportunity for Neil Bretherton but his shot cannoned off a defender for a corner. From the corner kick Sam Shone managed to get in a low shot which the keeper was able to save.

The first ten minutes were Villa's best spell of the game, after twelve minutes things started to go badly wrong, a misunderstanding at the back allowed a back pass to find the net, giving the visitors an early unexpected lead.

Poulton were lifted by their good fortune and started to raise their game. The visitors could have had a second on 18 minutes when they hit the Villa post with a header following a corner. The home side tried to come back and a minute later Sam Shone was just too high with a lob shot. The visitors were still having the best chances as Villa struggled to make an impression on the match. On the half hour Poulton came close again when a low ball was whipped into the Villa box which was inches away from being turned into the net by a Poulton forward. They came even closer after 36 minutes when a shot from outside the box hit the Villa crossbar. Villa came off at half time just happy to still be in the game.

After the half time break Villa tried to lift their game and put the opposition under pressure, on 48 minutes James O'Loughlin saw his lob Shot bounce off the top of the Poulton crossbar, three minutes later a good run down the left by Neil Bretherton saw his dangerous cross turned away for a corner. Poulton coped well with Villa's increased efforts without really being troubled, they then hit Villa with a counter punch, Just after the hour mark they won a corner, the ball in did not look overly dangerous, but it was missed by everyone, until it found a Poulton forward lurking at the back post and he took his chance.

With half an hour left to play this was game effectively over, Villa brought on all three sub's to try to lift their game, but while everyone worked hard, on the day there was no spark, and the visitors were able to cope with the Villa attacks without too much trouble. Villa did manage a consolation goal in injury time, when a low ball into the box was turned into the net by Adrian Briggs, but by then it was too little too late. There was some consolation to be taken from the game, Rhys Crombie and Ross Dickinson were very solid at the back, and on his debut keeper Karl Sutton grew in confidence as the game progressed.

Team - Sutton, Wood, Dickinson, Crombie, C.Chambers, Winstanley, (L.Conway )O'Loughlin, ( Broadbent ) Bradshaw, ( Martin ) Bretherton, Shone, Briggs.