Montpelier Villa narrowly defeated CCK 1-0 at Wish Park. Their late goal gave Villa their first win of the season and resigned CCK to their first defeat.
The Badgers started strongly and were unlucky not to take an early lead. David Jones slipped in strike partner Mike Morrison who tucked the ball into the net with his right foot. The referee's assistant decided to raise his flag, and the goal was disallowed. Video replays clearly showed that Morrison had timed his run perfectly and that the goal should have stood. Montpelier finished as runners up in the league last season, and they were producing some good football. A passing move resulted in a chance for their forward, who saw his shot well saved by the impressive Paul Muzzall. The game was an even contest with both sides enjoying good spells of pressure. Ivan Sambles produced a fine save from the goalkeeper, when he unleashed a powerful volley. Dave Atherall also tested the keeper with long range effort. Defensively CCK were coping brilliantly with Villa's attacks. Particularly Muzzall, and his central defenders, Jacob Fortescue and debutant Josh Van Nes. The clearest chance of the first half fell to Dave Sewell. He was 7 yards from goal when he failed to cleanly strike the ball as it bounced awkwardly in front of him. The 0-0 half time scoreline adequately portrayed the parity between both sides.
Montpelier Villa resumed play in dangerous fashion. Paul Muzzall was tested straight from kick off, producing a fine save low to his left after Villa manufactured an opening. CCK then burst into life and had a sustained period of pressure in the Villa half. They were inches from taking the lead when player-manager Tim Rose, met a David Jones corner only to see his header hit the bar. Despite piling on the pressure, CCK seemed to lack the cutting edge to take the lead. Instead Muzzall seemed to be the slightly busier of the keepers. He made some good saves before producing a stop of the highest quality, tipping a long range effort over the bar. Villa weren't to be kept out for long, and after three bites of the cherry during an attack, they finally managed to scramble the ball beyond the goal line to give them a 1-0 lead in the 79th minute. It was a blow to CCK's hopes of recording a home win. However, they hadn't given up hope of snatching a point from the match. Mark Edwards came on replacing Matt Carvel who had battled hard throughout the match. CCK almost got an equalizer when David Jones swung in a corner from the left that was glanced goalwards by Ivan Sambles. Just as he was preparing to run towards The Badgers fans in celebration, the Montpelier Villa goalkeeper acrobatically tipped the ball over. Mick Melville-Reed made a late substitutes appearance coming on for Jacob Fortescue who had performed well again in central defence. It was the CCK defence that had been so impressive throughout the game. Dan Reeves had been solid and adventurous at left back, Dave Atherall had coped well as a make-shift right back. The young debutant Josh Van Nes put in an impressive performance, as did goalkeeper Paul Muzzall. It was the lack of attacking penetration that CCK found costly as the game came to an end.
Manager Tim Rose felt his side were unlucky not to get anything from the game when he spoke in the press room at Wish Park after the match. "I felt a draw would have been a fair result. It was an even match, and so it's a big blow that they managed to knick it so close to the end. Two of our player definately didn't deserve to be on the losing side today. Josh Van Nes, who was class on his debut, and Muzz in goal, he was top drawer." Captain Dave Sewell believes his side can bounce back from defeat when they next play, "We have a strong bunch of lads and while we lost today, we have to remember that these guys were runners up last year, and our performance didn't really deserve a loss." Debutant and Man Of The Match Josh Van Nes was pleased with his debut, but wished he had been on the winning side, "It was great to play my first game here and to get the Man Of The Match is a bonus, but I would have prefered it if we had won the three points instead." CCK will be hoping that Van Nes will be part of a winning side, when they face AFC Stanley next week.
