Villa confirm their play off place as Green Lions fail to roar

It’s been a fine season for Hanworth Villa. Indeed, it’s been two fine seasons.

The 21-22 campaign saw the Villains take the Combined Counties Premier North title at a canter. Fifteen points clear of second place Southall, they managed to go through their entire thirty four matches without defeat- and they were also undefeated when the 20-21 campaign came to an early end. Put the last three seasons together, and they’d lost ten league matches in three years prior to kick off this evening.

It’s was no wonder, then, that they were just one win from guaranteeing a Pitching In Isthmian South Central play off spot, with two matches left to play. Guernsey were our visitors for tonight’s penultimate fixture of the regular campaign; could they get in the way of the hosts ambitions?

The Green Lions arrived knowing that they were safe from harm after a difficult campaign that had ended impressively, and they travelled with only two defeats from their previous ten matches. Their hosts had lost a game more during that period- however they had won the other seven, including wins over play off rivals (and former leaders) Basingstoke Town and Northwood, and also Binfield, the Moles starting the evening four points behind and also in action tonight.

Guernsey defeated their hosts in the Channel Islands quite recently, a three-one win the day after Valentine’s Day. However it was important not to read too much into that result, as the Villains were rather depleted that night. With most of their first choice side available this evening, they were hoping for a rather different outcome. In addition, when the team sheet arrived, the Green Lions star striker Ross Allen was a notable absentee. Their usual green kit was also an absentee- this evening they were the Purple Lions. In normal circumstances, if you can see purple lions, stop drinking.

Sam Merson got us underway for the hosts, in their usual red, kicking towards the end with the trees- as opposed to the end with the motorway. The hosts were quickly on the attack, and a cross from Meshach Williams was just too long for Merson, but it must have got a touch as the hosts got a throw, launched long into the box and diverted for a corner, followed by another, until the visitors managed to launch the ball forward and clear the danger.

After that early flurry of home pressure the game settled down a little, and indeed became rather scrappy. Both sides were aiming to get forward as quickly as possible, aiming balls towards Merson at one end and Sam Murray at the other, but whilst there was plenty of endeavour there was little accuracy until the twelfth minute, when a cross found Merson, who climbed above his defender, but was only able to head wide. A moment later a chance- if you can call it that- for Guernsey, Will Fazakerly trying a shot from the centre circle but the ball bouncing harmlessly side of the left hand post of Gary Ross in the Villa goal. We stopped for a break eighteen minutes in for players to break their fast, and so far the best description for the match was perhaps, ‘not a classic.’

Perhaps the nourishment made a difference, as the energy of the match suddenly increased, the hosts beginning to pass the ball nicely in the opposition half and push back their visitors. George Wells strode up from the back and tried his luck, hammering a shot forward from twenty five yards that had Josh Addison diving full stretch to his right. The keeper couldn’t reach it, but the ball caught the outside of the post and went wide as Wells cursed. Another chance, and the ball was just too high for Merson to properly control, but the striker tried again a moment later, firing over from distance.

The opener could have arrived on the half hour. A cross found Williams six yards out, but the Villa number eleven, rather like the rest of us, wasn’t expecting the ball to reach him and could only prod it towards goal, where Addison was able to save. A minute later a break for the hosts, Williams cutting it back, Merson’s effort somehow kept out by Addison- and almost immediately Addison thwarted the hosts again, saving at point blank distance from Williams. Was the Guernsey keeper ever going to be beaten? He was, almost immediately. Villa number five Wells, who had remained upfield, controlled beautifully, stepped forward and hit a piledriver from twenty yards. The home fans celebrated as much in relief as celebration- or perhaps they were just stunned that Addison hadn’t somehow got in the way.

Within three minutes it was two-nil. Guernsey were pressing when the ball broke to the Villa defence, and a beautiful forward ball found Merson outpacing the defence, who claimed offside. His run was apparently timed to perfection, his finish was precise, and this time the home celebration was joyous. Soon afterwards yet another break, Williams outpacing the defence, but as he was shooting he lost his balance and fired well wide as we waited for the net to bulge.

Deep into added time Theo Crawford looked to have added a third, but somehow Jacob Fallaize managed a goalie clearance to keep his side in the game. The whistle blew, and the hosts were comfortably ahead.

The Green Lions, who hadn’t tested Ross in the home goal during the first half, got us underway after the break whilst the home fans slowly trickled back from the bar. Tom Bender forced a save from Addison within three minutes, and Bender was again first to the ball from the resulting corner, but his header went over. A few minutes later and another header forced a save from Addison, again from Bender, and the pattern of the game was unchanged, the match being played almost entirely in the Guernsey half.

Ten minutes after the restart a left foot effort from Gagendeep Samra crashed back off the bar with Addison beaten. The Green Lions responded with the first change of the evening, Brandon Wallace on for Thomas Dodds, and it coincided with the visitors best spell so far, Wallace testing Ross with a shot from distance.

Not testing him all that much, mind you.

We reached the midway point of the second half with little else to report. Guernsey were, for the first time in the match, having plenty of possession- albeit to no real effect- whilst the hosts sat back and looked to break at speed when the visitors gave the ball away, which they did rather regularly.

With thirteen minutes remaining a bouncing ball reared up and struck home substitute Finlay McNabb on the arm. A free kick from sixteen yards, Guernsey with their best chance so far, but the free kick hit the wall. The rebound was played into a dangerous area, but no-one was able to turn it home. The Guernsey fans behind the goal broke into song for the first time this evening, but to be fair to them it was the first time they’d been given anything to sing about.

With six minutes left the hosts almost added a third. Merson was again first to the ball, firing across towards the far corner, but again Addison was able to save. The Guernsey keeper, at this point, was a clear man of the match; the hosts would have been much further ahead without him. A moment later another Merson effort, and again a fine save from the keeper. Sadly for the visitors, the third goal arrived from the resulting corner. Bender, again, was first to the ball with his head, and this time there was no mistake. Three-nil, and the game now most definitely over.

A few minutes of added time, and that was that. Villa were in the play offs- and who knows, perhaps they can go further still.

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