Euxton Villa 3  Hesketh Bank 0

Villa secured the points against a side they have often struggled to overcome, with a solid and assured performance in all departments. The back four played more as a unit and never looked like conceding, the midfield battled hard throughout, and the front men kept the visiting defenders busy all afternoon. As an added bonus, the match heralded the return from injury of Damien Stewart, who looked sharp until understandably tiring late on, and the irrepressible Alf Gutteridge. Few of us thought we’d see Alf make a return this season, let alone a scoring return, after a horrendous injury in October cut short his outstanding run.

Stewart and David Heald were prominent early on, and combined with the outstanding Andy Farley to set up the first chance for Aiden Briggs, but his header flashed just wide. Five minutes later, Briggs again went close, this time with a first time shot from a Farley throw. Neil Bretherton was next to have a pop, again it was the Farley, Heald, Briggs combination that created the opening, but again the shot flew just wide.

Then, on twenty minutes, Stewart powered into the box and was upended before he could deliver. Darren Davies stepped up and despatched the resulting spot kick with aplomb. Almost exactly ten minutes later, Briggs timed his run to perfection and found himself in behind the defence who looked in vain for a flag, and his unstoppable shot bulged the roof of the net.   Villa continued to dominate the remainder of the half, with Sam Bolton coming close to stretching their advantage shortly before the interval.

The second half began explosively. From the kick-off, Briggs found himself bearing down on goal inside ten seconds, and only a superb stop by the keeper thwarted his advance. Less than three minutes later Villa had the ball, in the net once more. Briggs again started it with a shot which the keeper parried. Stuart Bingham pounced on the rebound, but his powerful strike was blocked three yards out. The ball spun to the feet of the supporting Heald, who whipped it into the net, but he was deemed to have been in an off-side position at the time and the strike was cancelled out. Must have been close! Unfortunately Bingham was hurt in the process, and could take no further part.

Five minutes later, Bretherton struck woodwork after yet more good work from Heald, with Briggs again nearly capitalising on the rebound. Next it was the turn of Sam Bolton to rattle the crossbar from thirty yards on the end of a trademark powerful run.

Mid way through the half, Stewart gave way to the returning Gutteridge, who immediately picked up where he left off in October. Seven minutes after coming on, he latched on to a through ball, took it wide of the advancing keeper, and slotted home from an acute angle to put the game to bed.

Jon Salisbury got in on the act with a testing shot, and Justin Johnston in goal saw his only piece of serious action with a fine low diving save fifteen minutes from time, but Villa had the pinpoints wrapped up by this time and closed out the game in full command.

Referee Anthony Parkinson had his usual assured game, helping create the atmosphere for an engrossing encounter.  Next week sees the visit of local rivals, high flying Charnock Richard.  One definitely not to be missed, - see you there!

Villa Line-Up:  Johnston, Farley, Davies, L.Chambers. Bolton, Heald, Bingham (Salisbury 48), Loughlin,  Bretherton (Pennington 60),, Stewart (Gutteridge 76), Brigg

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