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Three more points
in the bank is about the best you can say about this
ignominious Villa performance, which the supporters were
forced to watch in 3D.... Dour, Dull, and Dire.
Work
commitments once again forced Mark McDonnell into changing a
winning line-up, but moving Matt Plano out of his holding
role where he has been absolutely outstanding in recent
weeks, was, to most people’s thinking, one unenforced change
too many. In the end, Villa’s failure to score once again
from open play meant that they had to rely on a couple of
controversial decisions to secure the points in a match in
which they should have been over the hills and far away by
the interval.
Horrendous rain in
the week meant that the pitch was never going to be at its
best, and as such there was plenty of visual corroboration
as to where the bulk of the play had taken place during the
first half, with what few divots there were near Villa’s
penalty area having been tamped down by the otherwise
virtually unemployed keeper, Ross Baxter.
Nevertheless,
although the first forty five minutes were largely played
out in the Tempest half, Villa were unable to seriously test
the Tempest keeper from open play, and a fairly routine
gather of a Gavin Cooper free kick was all the custodian had
to trouble him.
Then, mid way
through the half, David Heald worked a good opening down the
right, and fired a powerful low driven cross into the box,
which was stopped by the hand of a defender. To be fair, his
arms were down by his sides and he did not move hand to
ball, but the referee pointed to the spot, explaining that
he felt there was plenty of time to get the offending hand
out of the way, given how far the ball had travelled. A tad
harsh, perhaps, but Sam Bolton was not about to dispense any
sympathy, and crashed the spot kick into the corner with his
usual efficiency.
Given the balance
of play, the home support had every right to hope for a
couple more before the interval, but alas such hopes were to
go unfulfilled. Cooper fired another free kick narrowly
wide, and Matt Conway stung the palms of the keeper with a
thunderbolt from thirty yards, and that was about as close
as it came. The visitor’s back line was not the quickest we
have seen, but Danial Hogg was unable to get in behind with
the frequency shown in recent matches, and on the one
occasion he did he dragged his shot wide.
The Tempest keeper
was involved in an accidental collision as the half drew to
a close, and was sufficiently inconvenienced to render him
unable to come out for the second half. His stand in
replacement did well enough, but was instrumentally involved
in the incident which brought about Villa’s second. A mix up
between keeper and full back saw the former pick up a
back-pass. Anyone not present to witness what happened next
need only watch a video replay of Porto’s second against
Arsenal in their recent encounter, as it was pretty much a
carbon copy, except perhaps this ref at least didn’t get in
the way. He did, however, allow the goal to stand when Hogg
put the ball down quickly, slipped it to cooper, who poked
it home before the defence could organise. Protests were
long and vociferous, but as with Arsenal, perhaps someone
should have held on to the ball till people were in
position, a costly lesson to learn though.
Far from sitting
back licking their wounds, Tempest used the perceived
injustice to spur them into greater effort. Less than two
minutes later in fact, they grabbed an important toe-hold. A
routine corner, found the head of Hamer, who looped a header
over the advancing Baxter. Not the big man’s finest moment.
The final half hour
or so was a much more even affair, with Tempest harnessing
their indignation to good effect and for the first time the
final outcome was in some doubt. There was, however, a
paucity of meaningful opportunities at either end. The
nearest we came to a goal was when Hogg burst through again,
and although his shot was on target this time, the stand-in
keeper got his not inconsiderable frame down well to parry
the effort.
Disappointing as a spectacle, then,
with Villa lacking the shape and cohesion that has been a
feature of recent performances. However, another valuable
win, and with a couple of games in hand over those
immediately above in the table, it’s good to be looking up
rather than down when considering what might be possible.
Villa line-Up: Ross Baxter, Adam McAlister, Darren Davies,
Ross Dickinson, Sam Bolton, Matt Conway, Matt Plano (Ryan
Lilley 60), David Heald, Elliot Dunn, Gavin Cooper, Danial
Hogg (Tom Whittaker 85)
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