Sometimes the end of the season can’t come quickly enough, and most involved with Villa would have been happier had it come a couple of days earlier. Not so the match referee, who, in a ‘dead rubber’, strangely elected to play fifty-seven minutes of a second half which had seen few stoppages, but which was clearly becoming more heated the longer it went on. This action allowed for a very late (in all senses of the word) rash tackle, which resulted in a red card for the perpetrator, and required an ambulance for 17 year old Danny Brown, who sustained an injury that will keep him on crutches and off work for some weeks.

It was never going to be a pretty encounter, skilful football usually takes a back seat when Coppull come calling. However both teams having been in good form of late were keen to round off their respective campaigns with a win.

Villa had much the better of the first half and opened the scoring with a penalty mid way through.  In the absence of Sam Bolton, skipper Daz Davies promoted himself to stand-in taker. His powerful strike hit the bar, hit the post, hit the corner flag, then hit the keeper before landing back at Davies feet, allowing him to finally hit the back of the net.  Ten minutes later, the resurgent Aidy Briggs beat the off-side trap and strolled through unchallenged to coolly slot past Almond.

Villa had to rearrange things at the back when Ross Dickinson was carted off to hospital with a nasty head wound, and in the second half they were unable to kill off the game as their first half dominance suggested they might. Coppull pulled one back, and thus inspired, ‘fought’ hard for the equaliser. As the game dragged on, and on, and on into the gloom, football got off the back seat, got its coat and went home, and the season reached what would have been a farcical conclusion had it not been for the aforementioned incident.  In the end, Villa were happy enough to secure the points which saw them achieve their highest finish to date, and were even happier to get off with just the two hospitalised.

With several regulars missing from the starting line-up, the bright spots for Euxton were once again the contributions from the newly promoted youngsters, with both Danny Brown and Eliot Dunn stepping up to the mark and more than holding their own. The future’s bright ……….(finish it yourself!)

Villa : Baxter, C.Chambers, Davies, Dickinson (Bingham), Brown (Leigh),Whittaker, 

          Atherton, M.Conway, Stewart, Dunn, Briggs (Craddock).