FC Village 4-3 Tower
23/12/06 - League

The Village's first game for 3 weeks saw them continue their fine home form with another win which means they are top of the division for Xmas. For the first time in a long while it looked as though the Village had, with the exception of the long term injured Ritchie and Edgy, a full strength squad to choose from for this Xmas fixture against Tower. However as usual things never work out and arriving at the ground there was no Nic and Muzza has disappeared leaving the side with a quick shuffle around before kick off. With a slightly different looking starting eleven the side kicked off in an eager mood after no football for two Saturday’s and could have opened the scoring in the very first minute. Sweeney broke down the right and his cross reached Martin at the far post but his effort was well saved by the keeper. However it wasn’t long before the Village did open the scoring as Booey was put through and although he managed to side step the keeper he found himself on the goal line and so had to come back in to the box before he was able to fire home. It was all the home side and they soon doubled their advantage when from Sweeney’s corner Maggott’s header appeared to cross the line after hitting the bar and there was Booey right on the line to make sure after his first attempt had also hit the woodwork. With less than half an hour gone the Village scored a third goal and were cruising and this time Maggott was definitely the scorer as he burst down the left, shrugged off his defender and whipped in a shot past the keeper that went in off the far upright for 3-0. Then just before the half time whistle Tower who had gradually been playing themselves back in to the match threw themselves a life line when an in-swinging corner hit Martin on the shoulder and went over the line for 1-3. All of the Village’s hard work seemed to have gone to waste as almost immediately Sweeney was rather harshly adjudged to have fouled an opponent in Tower’s next attack and they were awarded a penalty. Cometh the hour, cometh the penalty king as Jay threw himself to his left and superbly saved the resulting spot kick enabling them to regroup at the interval still with their two goal advantage. Both sides knew how important the next goal would be and the Village had a great chance when an exquisite pass put Colin in the clear but with all the time in the world his shot was well off target. However minutes later Colin made amends when Maggott got the ball on the edge of the area and saw his shot beat the keeper and strike the bar but it fell to Colin who planted it in to an empty net for 4-1. With the game seemingly won now the Village attempted to shore up their defence with Nic coming on for Colin which allowed Cottier to move up to make a five man midfield. However the players failed to follow their instructions and Tower took a grip on the game without ever really troubling the Village defence. Then with less than ten minutes left the Village defence failed to clear the ball away from a Tower attack and the visitors pulled a goal back with a bundled far post effort. Almost immediately the Tower were given a free kick midway in the Village half and with the home defence walking back towards their goal the ref allowed Tower to take a quick one and a player lobbed home another goal for 3-4. Now it was suddenly panic stations in the Village defence as they realised that they could now let an important victory slip from their grasp when they should have run out comfortable winners. The Tower tried to throw everything forward in the hope of a last minute equaliser but the Village held on to record win number seven and when the other results came in they found that they were now three points clear going in to their last game of 2006.