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After 20 minutes of shear joy Villa decided to turn up
proceed to make the next 72 minutes nail biting hell.
We'd hardly got our seats warm when James Milner let
loose another one of his boring thunderbolts from the edge of the box,
up we jumped and lept round like the fools that we are. We'd just
finished insulting the half a dozen Villa fans that had been bothered to
make the trip up, when Dyer's noggin popped the second in. More leaping
about ensued. Ten mins later Parker nearly made it three when his 25
yarder hammered the post, if that had have went in we would have been
laughing.
Villa then arrived.
Martin O'Neil shouted some instructions to his team and
suddenly they where starting to get some corners, which our defence was
making a right pigs ear of clearing. On 25 mins the pressure paid up
when Ashley Young, playing his first game for Villa, connected on the
edge of the box. Our players just seemed to run away from the ball and
the visitors pulled one back.
Half time couldn't come quick enough with a constant
stream of chance heading the oppositions way. First Milner forgot who
he played for now and nearly score an own goal, Parker clearing it off
the line. Then Young had another chance that Steve Harper cleared with
his legs. The resulting corner had Gavin McCann gifted a shot that
thankfully he ballooned over the bar. With just under 35 minutes gone
Nicky Butt, who was by far our best midfielder, hobbled off to be
replaced by Super Sib. Dyer was pushed back into midfield and promptly
vanished from the game. Villa's other debut, Carew, hit the post but
our defence where again unable to deal with the threat. The resulting
deflection off Milner landed the ball at Youngs feet, luckily it was his
turn the howk the ball over. The half ended with Villa most definitely
on top and our finger nails chewed to the knuckle.
Oguchi Onyewu, who was watching from the stands, must
have realised he was about the have the hardest 5 months of football he
was ever going to have ahead of him.
The second half was more of the same, except with some
dodgy refereeing decisions thrown in for good measure. The first went
against us when he gave a corner from Carew effort, which hit the post
and trickled out. The second decision was in our favour when he rule
out Carews goal from the afforemented corner; Carew had been judged to
have pushed Sibs to get to the ball, but it looked like Sibs had gave as
good as he'd got. Villa always looked like they were going to score, as
the time ticked on they started to push more and more men forward but
never threatened like they had in the first. With 93 mins gone they
pushed a bit too much. Duff intercepted the ball at the half line and
pegged it down the pitch. Sibs raced down field with him. At first we
though Duff had left it too late as more oppo players arrived to fend
the attack off but he held his nerve, passed to Sibs who slotted our
third home between Sorensens flapping arms.
And that was the story of the game. Our keeper had a
blinder and their keeper couldn't catch cold. The result: we won by the
very flattering score line.
Let hope our next home game isn't half as stressful......
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