| |
Two very well taken goals and a superb double save saw Villa
take a comfortable lead into the dressing room at the
interval, and having been pretty much in control throughout
the half, it seemed that even at this stage, there was no
way back for the visitors. Regrettably for Villa, however,
somebody forgot to tell Burnley!
The afternoon might have been more
reminiscent of May than February, but the cumulative effect
of weeks of cold and wet had left their legacy is the form
of a pitch that was sluggish, and indeed heavy in places.
Credit to the lads though, everyone just got on with it, but
although the home side started the more assured, early
exchanges produced very little in the way of end product
until fully twenty minutes had elapsed. Then, Damien Stewart
whipped in a viscous free kick which David Heald headed
goalwards, but the keeper reacted well to turn round the
post. However, from the resultant corner Stewart again
delivered with quality, Phil Woodman nodded it back across,
and Mat Atherton hooked it on the turn, this time giving the
keeper no chance.
Villa settled into a rhythm and enjoyed
the bulk of the play for the remainder of the half, though
it took until a couple of minutes before half time before
they could add to their lead. A through ball appeared to be
running out of play, but Atherton refused to give it up and
chased it down, cutting it back just as it reached the
bye-line, and Tom Whittaker, alive to the possibilities,
slid in on the blind side top side foot home.
At this juncture it seemed that the
Burnley side would need to ‘get something’ before the
interval to give themselves any hope, and right at the death
they nearly did, but Ross Baxter pulled off a tremendous
double save to thwart their ambitions.
All over bar the shouting? Far from it!
Burnley emerged from the break with a new steely attitude,
and suddenly Villa found themselves in a game. And before
fifteen minutes had elapsed Baxter was picking the ball out
of his net when Stowe capitalised on a defensive miss-kick
. (I blame the groundsman).
It is an old truism in football, indeed
in any sport, that once you have lost the momentum it is
very difficult to get it back, and sure enough, ten minutes
later the scores were level when Berry crashed in a
spectacular thunderbolt from more than thirty yards, Baxter
no chance.
Mark McDonnell made a couple of changes
to try to re-establish control. And indeed, as the video
evidence shows, the home side had ample opportunity to get
their noses in front again. However, the tape, one would
have to concede, fails to illustrate the number of chances
created by the now rampant visitors, and although not
exactly ‘hanging on’, Villa can consider themselves
fortunate to come out of it with a point.
In the end, neither side will have been
content with the outcome. Villa seemingly had things all
wrapped up and consequently this felt more like a defeat
than a draw. Burnley on the other hand will feel that they
did enough in the second half to go home with all three
points, and who could argue. OK, so perhaps they have more
to play for in the league than the Euxton side, but on the
other hand, with a couple of big, big matches coming up, in
which there will not be shirts for everybody, surely no-one
in the Villa ranks can be certain that Mark McDonnell has
them pencilled in at this stage.
Villa Line-up: Baxter, Davies, Bolton
(Dickenson 71), L.Chambers, Bromham, Heald, Woodman
(Craddock 71), Loughlin, Stewart, Whittaker, Atherton |
|
