The first friendly of pre-season was a topsy-turvy affair as the Villa found themselves on the wrong end of a four-goal deficit at half-time, before rallying back with an eye-catching second half performance to finish with a much more respectable scoreline of 4-3.
New manager Michael Thompson blended youth with experience - there was a 19 year age-gap between youngest and eldest(!) - and sent out an attacking 4-3-3 formation. Although the men in orange kept possession well, clear cut chances were hard to come by with the Winstanley defence looking well organised and clearly benefitting from the couple of friendlies they had already hosted this summer.
Villa were caught out from a long diagonal ball for the first goal; the Winstanley winger skipping away from his marker to square for a tap-in. Worse was to follow when a simple throw-in routine resulted in a free strike from the edge of the box flying into the bottom corner past the helpless Scott.
The visitors rallied with McPhail looking dangerous on the left flank. Gronback began to prompt from midfield, linking well with Gutteridge and Whittaker to fashion a chance from the edge of the box which flew just wide. Jones was next to try his luck, shifting the ball from right to left before snatching at the chance and seeing his effort float past the post.
Once again a throw-in routine caught the Villa napping with the Winstanley winger taking full-advantage to fire home his side's third from 10 yards out. What looked to be the killer blow arrived just before half-time as a miscued pass to Heald resulted in the veteran centr-half having his pocket-picked and the ball slipped into the net.
Thompson re-arranged his formation at the interval, sending the team out in a tighter 4-5-1 formation which seemed to result in a more assured defensive shape. Villa began to zip the ball around in a quicker fashion than during the opening 45 minutes, the newly-introduced Harpey shifting the ball from side to side as Conway and Whittaker pushed further forward to pressure their opponents higher up the pitch.
Patience in possession and good movement off the ball saw Davies sting the keeper's palms from the edge of the box before a series of corners almost saw a Villa breakthrough. The hosts were limited to long balls which Heald and McCormack comfortably dealt with.
Villa eventually got on the scoresheet after a slaloming run from Gorge drew lunging tackle from his opposite number. The referee played an expert advantage, with Conway slotting home from just inside the box.
It was all Villa at this point, with Conway adding his and his team's second with a drilled effort from 20 yards out. Banks almost netted the third, his effort pinging back off the post, before Harpey capped an impressive performance with an oportunistic 40 yard lob to round out the scoring for the day and leave a final scoreline of 4-3 in the hosts' favour.
All in all, there were plenty of positives for Thompson to take from this game, most notably the slick passing and wilingness to keep working hard even when four goals down. There is also plenty to work on, with a lack of match-sharpness unsurpsingly being a factor in the individual errors which littered the first-half.
