Villa Hit men: M.Conway

For seventy minutes there was nothing to chose between the two sides as Villa opened their league program with a home fixture against the defending league champions.

This was a far closer game than the final score-line suggests, it was Villa who started the stronger of the two sides setting a high tempo by playing short passing football and not allowing their opponents to settle on the ball. This approach was making the visitors defence look anything but composed, after five minutes play a good run by Liam Conway resulted in a free kick just outside the Kirkham box , Adrian Briggs hit a great free kick which the Kirkham keeper just managed to turn around the post, from the resulting corner James O' Loughlin saw his lob shot hit the crossbar, at this point the visitors were struggling to contain the Villa.

The home sides pressure eventually told after ten minutes when a casual clearance from the Kirkham keeper fell to Matt Conway who seeing the keeper off his line hit a precise lob over the stranded keeper and into the net, Matt's joy was short lived as minutes later he fell twisting his knee and was replaced by Sam Shone. Villa continued to press and good defending was limiting the visitors to half chances , however on the half-hour Kirkham won a corner and levelled the scores with a headed goal, Villa came back and with five minutes of the half remaining Graham Chatterly twisted into the box only to see his shot hit the side netting.

At half-time the visitors made two changes and started the second half in a much more determined mood, but Villa continued to work hard to match their opponents but were now creating fewer opportunities , the game turned on seventy minutes when Kirkham took the lead with a low shot into the bottom corner, this goal deflated the home side and as players tired the visitors started to show their class and superior fitness , they scored again on 75 minutes when a ball over the top beat the Villa defence , Villa tried to rally and Sam Shone came close with a shot over the bar , but by now the visitors were controlling the game and scored further goals on 80 & 85 minutes.

For Villa Mick Bradshaw worked hard in centre midfield and was man of the match, Villa must now quickly come to terms with life in a higher division, but despite the result there were many encouraging aspects of the teams performance and they must look upon this game as a learning curve and move on.

Team - Gilmour, Chambers, Walker, O' Loughlin, (Riding) Baker (Neary) L.Conway, Parkin, Bradshaw, Chatterly Briggs, M. Conway (Shone)