TWO Chris Murray goals helped Abbey Villa to collect maximum points away at Newcastle last Thursday evening.
A minute’s silence was held before the game as a mark of respect to former manager Jonathan Busby, whose mother passed away on Wednesday.
Due to strong gusting winds on a very bumpy pitch, both teams really struggled for long periods to put together any sustained periods of controlled play. That said, Villa found themselves two goals to the good within the first 10 minutes.
The first was a bit of a scrambled effort which was finally tapped over the line by Jake Wilson from close range after a Josh Barnes long throw wasn’t properly cleared by the home defence.
The second was another smashing strike from Chris Murray, after a neat bit of play between Ross Arthurs and Keith Armstrong. Chris picked up the ball in a central area and with the wind behind him hit a clean strike into the top left hand corner of the net.
Villa continued to dominate play but following the second goal, the conditions had a detrimental impact on the game as it lost a bit of momentum.
The second half continued in a similar vein, neither team really taking the game by the scruff-of-the-neck. But Villa did create a couple of really good chances, which neither Murray nor Wilson were able to finish off.
With 15 minutes to go and the Newcastle team beginning to look a bit heavy legged, Villa did manage to add to their advantage when Alex McIlmail latched onto a cross from Arthurs before directing his header low into the bottom corner.
Very soon afterwards, Villa were four up when McIlmail again finished off what was a super move. Substitute Jack Upritchard picked the ball up on the right hand side of the pitch before drifting inside to a more central area. He had a couple of options but he decided to slip a defence splitting ball through to Chris Murray, who shaped to shoot but at the last moment slipped a neat sideways pass to McIlmail and he had the simple task of passing the ball into an empty net.
The fifth and final goal was another really well worked and executed strike. After a nice bit of play on the right wing between Upritchard and Luke Cummins, the latter drilled a super cross deep into the home defence. Keith Armstrong had made another of his trademark runs deep into the opposition area, which saw him ideally placed to throw himself head first at the cross, burying his controlled header into the net.
