Hasta la Villa

Three goals in the last sixteen minutes saw the Premiership side deservedly beat United tonight, although the scoreline more than flattered them. In the first half United were the equals of Villa, and although not as lively in the second half it was United who had the better chance when a scramble in the Villa area saw an Adi Viveash header kicked off the line followed by two good penalty calls for handball, neither of which were awarded. Then Andy Woodman spilled a fairly straightforward catch from a corner and in the ensuing melée Ian Taylor prodded the ball over the line for a soft goal after 74 minutes. Then, just three minutes later, Woodman made an even worse error to gift Villa their second goal, allowing a long range shot from Gareth Barry to slip through his hands into the net. With four minutes remaining Dion Dublin volleyed Villa's third after the United defence had followed the example of most of the crowd and gone home.

United reverted to 5-3-2, reinstating Matt Bound in the back three with Andy Scott not selected and replacing Dave Waterman with Dean Whitehead. Up front Steve Basham started alongside Jefferson Louis, with Gavin Gordon dropped to the bench. United's first substitution, five minutes into the second half, saw Gordon come on for the tiring Louis. After United had gone two goals down ROS Chris Hackett replaced Matt Bound as the Us went to 4-4-2 and the final throw of the dice was Manny Omoyinmi coming on for Basham, but alas to no avail.

Referee Matt Messias, refereed our first game of the season against Bury, had an excellent game and either failed to show any yellow cards all evening to United players or allegedly booked two Yellows for disputing the first goal, which looked suspiciously offside. The attendance of 12,177 was a new record for the stadium and is unlikely to be beaten until the fourth side is complete. A match report can be read here.