Coppull United 2 Euxton Villa 0

This was never going to be one to savour, and indeed a dour and scrappy affair of few clear cut chances it turned out to be, with the home side showing the greater resilience, and ‘grinding out a win’, albeit with the help of a Villa defence that found themselves all at sea on a couple of crucial occasions.

Villa started the more assured, and Neil Bretherton corner on five minutes had the Coppull defence floundering, unfortunately no-one found the killer touch. Then, before any real pattern could emerge, Villa lost the services of Mark Swift, outstanding last time out, and had to re-organise in the centre. (Ligament damage Roger says, so probably means it’s broken). This prompted introduction of Ian Curwen, in outstanding form recently and one of the best out and out target men in the league, but centre midfield?  Maybe not.

Mid way through the half, Bretherton found himself in the clear and on the end of a perfectly flighted cross, but he probably had too much time and went for placement over instinct and didn’t find the target. Five minutes later Stuart Bingham, having been viciously upended and seen that go unpunished, reacted with an overenthusiastic challenge, and found himself in the book.

The half ground on, and not until the forty fourth minute was there a real chance, when Ryan Lilley sprinted clear, but he dragged his low shot just wide. This spurred Villa into a promising spell, but in spite of the lengthy injury stop for Swift, and three lectures and two bookings, less than half a minute’s stoppage was deemed necessary.

A shocking start to the second half saw Coppull grab a soft goal from an uncontested diving header, strong claims for off-side being waved away. Then, with ten minutes on the clock, farce ensued. Bingham and an opponent were involved in an exchange of glares, enough it seems to warrant a second yellow and consequent dismissal. Strangely, the ref decided to consult his assistant after the sending off – just one of many strange decisions in what was a very poor refereeing display.

Villa allowed their opponents a soft second with more pusillanimous defending five minutes later, and although Lilley came close with another low shot a couple of minutes later, Coppull were able to use their man advantage to prevent any real threat to their lead. A free kick right on the edge of the box when Lilley fell over the ball offered the best opportunity, but Bretherton was unable to reprise last weeks stunner, and hit the wall somewhere about knee level. That aside, Bretherton looked to carry the most threat for Villa, and having bagged three last week, seems a strange decision to take him off when you’re chasing the game.

A poor day all round for Villa. Once again, in a game that is all about opinions, it leaves me wondering why we persist with a system that other teams have tried but turned their back on; teams such as Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid , Juve, Barca, Milan……..

Villa Line-up: Johnston, Bolton, Davies, L.Chambers, Farley, Loughlin, Swift (Curwen 11), Marquis (Salisbury 84), Lilley, Bretherton (Stewart 71)