First Team

Euxton Villa 1  Charnock Richard 1

The final curtain descended on a very satisfying season for Villa, with local rivals Charnock Richard providing a fitting finale in what was a hotly contested, sometimes bruising, but always entertaining encounter.

With spring finally having sprung, a substantial travelling support swelled the usual ranks of the home faithful, and they didn’t have long to wait, for their first moment of excitement. A floated ball into the Villa box was knocked out for a corner, to the accompaniment of a vociferous chorus of ‘hand ball’, but though hands were up, no contact was deemed to have been made.

The teams sparred their way through the next twenty or so minutes, before an underweighted back header allowed George Craddock the first real opportunity as he pounced on the loose ball, but he dragged his instinctive effort wide of the far post.  Five minutes later, David Heald saw a header touched just over the bar from an Andy Farley free kick.  Back down the other end, Justin Johnston in the Euxton goal brought off the first of a handful of top drawer saves, diving full stretch to his left to turn away a curler from Dean Cooper.  Villa had chances from a late corner, but nothing came of it and the teams went in at the interval with honours even.

The second half almost started with a bang when Heald, outstanding all afternoon, powered all the way into the six yard box inside the first minute, but the Charnock defence closed ranks and crowded him out. Then shortly after the hour mark, a Villa corner, was cleared down the left, and from the breakaway a routine cross and header saw George Craddock grab the initiative for the visitors.

Mark Mc Donnell sent Ryan Lilley on, and immediately Villa looked to carry more threat, with Heald chasing everything, and Alf Gutteridge finding a lot more joy down the right.  Gutteridge in fact went close with a snap shot that just failed to dip in time. 

Then, with something less than fifteen minutes left on the clock, a powerful Villa shot from the edge of the box struck Critchley on the elbow, and although the lad was turning away with his arms at his side, to everyone’s amazement the ref pointed to the spot. Harsh maybe, but Sam Bolton remained the coolest head in the ground to despatch the penalty with style.

Both sides redoubled their efforts to try to secure the winner. Lee Chambers sent Gutteridge galloping down the right, and his swinging cross saw Lilley out jump everybody, but his header back across just beat the far post.

Charnock sent Dean Taylor on to try to reprise his Goldline Cup final performance, and indeed he nearly did just that five minutes from time, but his powerful downward header was matched by another superb stop from Johnston diving low to his right.  The visitors had another couple of opportunities before the end, a free kick producing a series of last ditch clearances, and although they did in fact have the ball in the net right at the death, it was clearly from an off-side position.

Charnock came needing only a point to secure runners up spot, and are to be congratulated on another fine season. However, they did not come to play for a draw, and it is a measure of the progress  the lads have made under Mark McDonnell’s stewardship that they matched their more experienced opponents in all departments. Yes, there will always be a few ‘what ifs’ with regard to points dropped along the way, but progress has been remarkable since joining the West Lancs League just four seasons ago. Congratulations all round.

Villa Line-up: Johnston, Pennington, L.Chambers, Bolton, Marquis, Farley Bingham, Loughlin, Bretherton (Lilley 67) Gutteridge, Heald. (NU: Briggs, Salisbury)

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