Euxton Villa 1  Burnley United 3

For the final twenty or so minutes of this match, the Euxton side pummelled the visitors’ goal in an effort to get something out of a game that was by that time beyond redemption, the Burnley side having somewhat prematurely kicked into cruise control after having, probably somewhat more easily than they expected, found themselves with a comfortable lead.  In fact, the youthful United side dominated the first hour, with a determination that saw them first to every loose ball, and with some smooth inter-passing that their hosts could not match. On the day, one or two of the Villa players looked as though they would struggle to find an orange shirt if they stumbled into a Holland supporters shop!

It took the visitors less than five minutes to get their noses in front, with a fine Taylor header from a well placed cross. Sometimes there are just good goals which are nobody’s fault. However a near miss from a similar header two minutes later would have been down to poor picking up from a corner. Right on the quarter hour, Villa’s best move of the half saw Ryan Lilley release Damien Stewart, and he in turn slid in for Alf Gutteridge to beat the keeper low to his left.

Villa were not able to use this as a springboard to better things, and it was the visitors who always carried the greater threat. Burnley’s back line had little to trouble them, well marshalled as the were by their useful looking skipper Geohegan, though in truth the Villa attack would have made anyone look good on this first half display, or indeed lack of it!  No surprise then that Sharples was able to restore their advantage shortly before the interval, though his shot on the turn from the edge of the box was top drawer.

The second half started as the first ended, and Justin Johnston had to dive at full stretch to get a fantastic hand to a superb goal-bound volley inside thirty seconds. Hope Secretary Kubrick got that one on video! 

Mid way through the half, the Villa coaching staff went for a change of format, but whilst the defence were trying to get to grips with the alterations, Burnley capitalised on the withdrawal of right back, as Harrison pounced on a loose ball and lobbed Johnston to open up daylight between the sides.

The introduction of the returning youth player Phil Woodman, and the nearly fully fit again Dave Mason, gave Villa a new lease of life. Suddenly the United centre backs found themselves in a game, with players in their faces for virtually the first time in the match, and at last the home support had something to cheer about. But it was all too late, and despite the late rally the scoreline remained unaltered.

A deeply disappointing day, lightened only by the promise of more to come from Messers Mason and Woodman, hopefully in the not too distant future. It’s on days like these that I’m glad we don’t give individual ratings.

Villa Line-up: Johnston, Pennington (Woodman 67), Davies, L.Chambers, Marquis, Gutteridge (Mason 65), Bingham (Atherton 82), Loughlin, Bolton, Stewart, Lilley.

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