L.Conway, Briggs, Chambers

This was, by far, Villa's best performance of the Season to date with a display of total concentration allied to a high work rate.  The whole team worked hard to close down their opponents and deny them space.

Turton started well, and Keeper Shaun Gibbs had to be alert after 10 minutes when he produced a good save from a Turton corner.

In the opening period the game the home side's pressure resulted in a number of corners. But Villa defended well, and started to `hit' the home side with counter-attacks down both wings. On 18 minutes Brad Dowling had a good shot which `flashed' over the bar but something needed to be done to break the `dead lock'.

Villa Manager, Mark McHugh, felt one of his inspired moments was called for! So on 30 minutes he moved Liam Conway to the left wing and, within a minute a ball into the Turton box was won by Adrian Briggs. Their goal keeper when trying to clear lost possession of the ball and Liam Conway was able to pick it up and shoot into an empty net. This `rattled' Turton and Villa finished the half as the stronger team.

The start of the second half saw the home side trying to draw level. On 48 minutes they were awarded a free kick outside the Villa area. The resulting free kick went straight to Sean Parkin who was able to release Liam Conway. This caught the home defence `on the hop' and Liam Conway was able to set up Adrian Briggs who made no mistake to make the score line 2 - 0.

After the early second half onslaught from Turton, Villa took control again.  Guy Clarkson was causing problems down the left wing and he came close with a right foot shot on 65 minutes. Villa `wrapped the game up' 5 minutes later when a surging run by Craig Chambers down the right following an interchange of passes with Liam Conway brought him to the corner of the Turton box. The skipper's low drive flew into the bottom corner of the net.

Villa continued to work hard to control the game and frustrate the home side. Both teams produced good passing football but, on the night, it was the visitors who took their chances and by the end deserved a hard worked victory to maintain a very good start to the Season. Congratulations to the whole team for an outstanding performance against a very good Turton side.

Team: Gibbs, Chambers, Dickinson, O'Loughlin, Baker, (Crombie), L. Conway, (Winstanley), Bradshaw, Clarkson, Parkin, (M. Conway), Dowling, Briggs