by Glen Gibbs Peak Sports Powell River Villa FC was licking its chops at the prospect of taking on an undermanned side from Victoria on Saturday night, October 22.
Gordon Head Blue 2 arrived with just 10 men and their coach, Peter Smith, who also entered the game at the 35-minute mark.
It’s an unwritten rule that a team never wants to be beaten by another lower in the standings so Villa took the pitch determined to overpower the weakened last-place team in the division.
It certainly looked good early as Villa dominated the percentage of play and kept Gordon Head hemmed in.
After 15 minutes, though, it became apparent that even with the control, Villa still hadn’t had a shot on the Blue goal and weren’t getting much of a chance to take one.
Villa eventually did have its chances but shots by Brendon Knox, Kye Taylor and a spinning kick from Jake Kenmuir from 20 yards were all saved by the keeper.
The best chance of the half might have been the throw-in by Jamie Zroback deep to Jordan Peters in the box who took a shot and hit the crossbar.
The rebound came to Kenmuir who unleashed a kick that just went over the bar to keep the game scoreless.
Teams fear games where domination with no goals can come back to haunt you and Gordon Head almost took the lead on a long shot in the first half.
A bomb from just inside centre was headed for the top corner but Villa keeper Douglas Rivera just managed to tip it over the bar.
With the score 0-0 at the half, Villa coaches were urging their troops to step up the pressure to tire the shorter side. Gordon Head’s coach Smith was telling his tired bunch, “the trip home will be a much happier one if we can win this game.”
Each team followed their coach’s instructions but Gordon Head was perhaps more fortunate in the final 45 minutes.
Despite being out-chanced and outplayed the Blue managed to sneak the only goal of the game on a corner kick.
“The guy kicked it near post,” reported Rivera, “and the other guy flicked it on and it went top. He was marked but I had no chance to make the save.”
Villa stormed back after the goal at the 74-minute mark but couldn’t find it finish on this night.
Nick Van’t Schip flicked a corner from Knox just wide of the far post and Dylan McLean drove a ball high over the net on a partial breakaway.
“There were two guys around me,” McLean said later, “and I couldn’t get my body around to get a good shot. I guess I hit it too hard and it sailed right over the top.”
Gordon Head, of course, was thrilled at the outcome and Smith said, “I was very happy with the game the boys played considering we came with 10 guys and they had to have their coach play with them as well. We played hard and battled.”
“To lose to a team that travels with 11 using a 50-year-old man is tough,” said an unhappy Taylor, “considering that we had the run of play in the first half. I told the guys before the game that we could make it really easy for ourselves if we could bury a couple, maybe get up two or three nothing. You can then dictate the flow of the game.”
Unfortunately for Villa, that didn’t happen and it opened the door for Gordon Head to score once, which was enough to steal a win.
Villa will try to steal a win of its own next week when it travels to Nanaimo to play at 2 pm, Sunday, October 30.
