Report: Friendlys

The Village kicked off the new campaign with the first of their pre-season friendlies down at their old stomping ground of Newton. They were up against Sunday side Millcroft who have the use of the Newton pitch and have Leigh and Sadler playing for them. The Village took 16 players for this opener and with Ashley, JJ and Pete all gone to pastures new the side were looking at a fair few new players. These included Mike Rutter, Alex Whitty, Steve Greenfield (Spud) and James Jones (Bozzo) who had all been training with the club for the last month or so. They were joined by 2 last minute trialists in Mike Kearney and Paul Stewart who both made the starting line up.  The remaining 10 were the usual suspects in Jay, Martin, Nick, Lee, Harper, Booey, Crozzer, Ritchie, Machin and Maggot leaving Dava, Jason and Gormo as the only ones missing. To the game and with the Village employing a tentative 4-5-1 line-up the game took a while to get going and meant manager Steve kept back his 5 subs instead of using them early on. With Stewy showing his quality in the heart of the defence the Village dealt with anything Millcroft threw at them and just before half time Machin opened the scoring with a great individual effort. This allowed Steve to make his 5 subs during the interval as the side reverted to 4-4-2 for the second period. This looked to have backed fired when the home side had a good start to the second half with Jay having to make a couple of fine saves. Then Millcroft were awarded a penalty after a foul by Lee and the resulting spot kick was converted for the equaliser. However almost immediately the Village were ahead again when Spud thundered home a great shot with his left boot which put the Village in the driving seat again. With Millcroft swapping their players around the Village through Booey and Ritchie started to make the openings and it came as no surprise when they added another 2 goals towards the end. Maggot back on for the last quarter got his goal when he stabbed in from close range via an assist from Machin and then Bozzo’s cross was turned in by a defender as he tried to keep out Rutter for number four. Overall a good workout with all of the new lads looking good and as though they will fit in to the Village style of play. Click here for pictures.

The Village's second friendly saw them take on Wirral Hundred down at Links View on the worst of the three pitches with no nets or markings. However in a well fought encounter the Village came out on top by 2-1 thanks to goals from Lee Wilson and Mike Rutter. A more in depth report to follow....... Click here for pictures.

Friendly number 3 and 3 days after their second match the Village were back down at Links View to play WCS (Maggot's Sunday team) on a very small pitch but at least it had nets and flags. They had to come from behind twice through two goals from Maggot and then grabbed a last minute winner from Captain Booey. A more in depth report to follow....... Click here for pictures.

After a 2 week lay off the Village squeezed in a final friendly even though the League had started as they had a free week like Unitor from Div 2. So down at Bala in Birkenhead Park the Village drew a game they should probably have won but they were missing several players, got a couple of injuries and had to play a long second half. A more in depth report to follow......... Click here for pictures.