Euxton Villa 1  Eagley 5

Reams could be written about this match, but from a Villa point of view, it’s a case of the least said, the better.

Even without a couple of key players in the starting line-up (Loughlin and Farley), Villa should have held the Indian Sign over the visitors, whom they despatched on the wrong end of a 3-1 just a week ago. Eagley started the stronger however, and for their efforts were gifted a soft goal on ten minutes when goalkeeper and defence failed to communicate.

Villa rallied though, and gradually clawed themselves back into it, and just short of the half hour got back on terms with a superb volley from Ryan Lilley after a brilliant, powerful run and cut back by David Heald.

Villa enjoyed their best spell in the following minutes, but then, in a four minute period of madness either side of the interval, the wheels came off. First the normally unflappable Lee Chambers got himself pumped up after an exchange with colleagues and in an adrenaline charged few minutes, was yellow carded twice. From the free kick on the second, Justin Johnston misjudged the flight and Villa were behind again.

Immediately after the re-start, a bizarre incident saw an indirect free kick awarded inside the box for double handling. Not to worry – no-one ever scores from an indirect that close in. Or so we thought, but a simple touch back and lash proved otherwise!

After that Villa were all over the place, and any thought that ten men are hard to play against went out the window. Eagley scored another shortly after, and notched a fifth when Villa were reduced to nine when David Heald was sent packing for a ridiculous challenge having been successfully wound up throughout the second half.

To put things into context a little, I can only recall Villa having one other sending off in the previous four seasons since joining the West Lancs, and that was for decent.   Despite the trying circumstances, referee Robert Seeth actually handled the game well, and Villa can blame no-one but themselves for this debacle.

Villa Line-up; Johnston, Pennington, Davies, L.Chambers, Bolton, Gutteridge (Marquis) Binghasm, Crombie (Loughlin), Heald, Stewart, Lilley (Briggs)

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