Post match review
12th of September, 2020
Mid Sussex Division One - Balcombe 2s 1-2 Villa 2s
After an impressive pre-season culminating in 3 wins out of 4, MVFC 2s started the season disappointingly with a 4-1 defeat away at a strong AFC Acorns the previous week. This weekend saw their second competitive fixture of the season with another league game on the road away to Balcombe 2s, who had won their opening fixture against Lindfield 2s.
Villa started strongly without really being able to carve out any clear cut chances. However, a free kick from just inside the Balcombe half found Reeves in the box who placed his header superbly past the keeper into the far corner to put Villa 1-0 up on the half an hour mark.
Balcombe wouldn’t let up and battled hard to earn their equaliser on the stroke of Half Time with the ball going across the Villa box and the Balcombe forwards queuing up for a tap-in.
10 minutes into the second half, Wilson came on for Selby on the wing and Stanyard’s hamstring finally got the better of him as he was replaced on 70 minutes for “officially retired” Assistant Manager, Viggers. The walking wounded and Dad’s Army come to mind as Hamilton and Kneller also picked up injuries in the second half.
A moment of magic from Muligande then proved to be what settled the game. With 15 minutes left on the clock, he cut in from the left and curled a looping right footed effort into the top corner from 25 yards to put Villa 2-1 up.
Balcombe chasing an equaliser saw the Villa backline under pressure for the final 15 minutes. They held strong to make it through to full time and come away with all 3 points to get the season up and running and give manager Dan Branch his first competitive win as manager.