Report: FC Village 3 Central Park 0

The Village got back to winning ways with a comfortable win over Central Park down at Levers as three first half goals won them the match. The Village side saw the return of Leigh and as Martin was absent Lee moved out to full back but then there was last minute drama as Pete failed to show which meant Harper started in the left back slot. Otherwise the rest of the side was the same which meant that Jason was the only sub although this was better than their opponents who only had the bare eleven and no one on their line at all which meant that Dave had to do the flag.

As in most of their home games this season the Village tore out of the blocks and virtually won the match in the opening period. Despite this it was the visitors who got the first clear chance after only a couple of minutes when a long ball out of defence deceived the Village back line and one of the Park forwards ran on but Jamie made a smart finger tip save. The Village were soon in their stride and it wasn’t long before they opened the scoring when Ritchie set Kenny free out on the right and he raced away to tuck the ball under the keeper for his first goal in eight games. Minutes later the team had doubled their lead when Maggot in his last game before his knee operation scored a replica of the first goal. This time he beat the offside trap on the half way line and ran clear to slip the ball home for his fourteenth of the campaign. The visitors claimed that both of these goals were offside and they may well have been right but there were several other occasions when the ref blew for offside and the Village forwards were so obviously onside. Several chances came and went, the best falling to Victor who save his excellent volley well saved by the Central keeper after a sweeping move down the right involving four of the home side and would have easily won the goal of the month had it gone in. Then just before the interval came that all important third goal that gave the Village the breathing space they needed. Another good move ended with Victor getting the ball just inside the box and he steered it wide of the diving keeper for an interval lead of 3-0.

The Village knew that despite this healthy lead it was still going to be a tough second forty five and so it proved. Although the visitors enjoyed a fair slice of the game they never really threatened the home goal and on the one occasion they did Jamie made a fantastic save to claw the ball out of the goal after it had come off the bar and then Ritchie was able to clear away. The Village never produced the same flowing moves from the first half although Victor was very unlucky not to double his total for the game when he ran on to a lobbed through ball and headed over the keeper in to the net only for the ref to mysteriously blow for offside. With the game in the bag the Village were able to give Jason a fairly long run out knowing that from next week and maybe for a number of weeks they will be missing Maggot as he goes in to hospital this Fri for his operation on his knee. The team wish him a speedy recovery. So their first win in four games and two more points which keeps them up there with the leaders in the division even though they have played more games than any other side.

Team Line-up

FC Village: Hill: Wilson, Whorton, Hutton, Harper; Murphy, Leeds, Aspey, Machin; Eaton, Thurgill (Church)
Sub not used:

More photos from this game click here