The atrocious weather conditions were the most significant contributing factor to this football match with both sides finding it difficult in the extreme and struggling at times to create any meaningful moves whilst in possession of the ball. That being said, EKYC coped far better than visitors Aston Villa to the driving rain and stormy conditions and eased to a four goal victory.

Liam Downes put the home side in front with his first attempt on the Villa goal. With only four minutes on the clock, a dangerous cross was sent into the far post area from a corner kick, the defence failed to clear and Downes managed to read the flight of the ball and headed into the net, 1-0.

Aston Villa did not time to recover when Lewis Gillies managed to skilfully turn with the ball, beating two players before shooting low from fifteen yards, goalkeeper Kyle Cassidy saved comfortably. EKYC extended their lead to two goals shortly afterwards when Liam McCabe’s crossed ball was met by Parsa Esfahani inside the six yard box and touched over the goal line with ease, 2-0.

Villa managed to have a decent first attempt on the home side’s goal when Scott McNee’s shot from 25 yards was deflected for goalkeeper Kieran Scullion to make the save.

Although second best at this stage, Villa were beginning to look more comfortable with the conditions. EKFC came close to a third goal when Villa’s keeper made a poor clearance that managed to find the feet of Downes. He then went past a player before sending a pitch-perfect ball across the face of an empty goal towards Patrick Canning. Fortunately for Villa, his slide to meet the ball was inches from a successful outcome. Esfahani who had been proving to be a handful thus far for Villa, made a dangerous run towards the goal but instead of finishing himself, unselfishly passed inside for Canning to make sure of the third, 3-0.

At the end of the first half, Villa's Scott Roy produced a nice ball through for McNee inside the EKFC penalty area and shot wide from fifteen yards. Villa were then  awarded a free kick close to the eighteen yard line which Jake Wilson opted to take, his strike cleared the wall and dipped goal bound, Scullion was somehow able to track the path of the ball and got down low to make a pretty decent save.

Within a couple of minutes of the restart, Esfahani was up to his  old tricks again and causing merry hell within the Villa penalty area when from a throw in and with his back to goal, he managed to get a toe onto the end of the ball and send it onto the crossbar. Lewis Gillies was now coming onto a game and looking dangerous with the ball at his feet when he struck with his first touch from twenty yards and watched in disbelief has Cassidy got down to make a great save and deny him his goal. He didn’t have to wait long when he received the ball at his feet twenty five yards from goal, running strongly towards goal and with a little shimmy, he managed to beat two players on the edge of the penalty area and struck low from fifteen yards, great individual goal from the big man, 4-0.

In fifty minutes, Canning came close but for the heroics of Cassidy in the Villa goal then Esfahani sent a dangerous cross in for Downes to head onto the crossbar, EKYC were by no means putting their foot on the brake pedal yet and still on the lookout for goals, Gillies illustrated this when he attempted a thirty yard strike that crept past the far post.

With about twenty minutes of the match remaining, Aston Villa managed to produce their most creative passage of play, starting with a lovely sequence of passes outside the EKYC penalty area and ended with two good strikes from McNee and Roy with both narrowly missed the target. On seventy minutes, Villa were awarded another free kick close to the eighteen yard line, Roy struck the ball sweetly over the defensive wall and off of the crossbar, Cameron Pearson speedily ran in for the rebound and narrowly missed the ball with his head. Pearson finished the match strongly and had two identical chances within a minute, on both occasions he won the ball short of the penalty area and shot inches wide of the far post.

Although EKYC were the dominant team throughout this match and fully deserved their win, Aston Villa made the most of the few chances that came their way, and who knows, with a little bit of fortune the score line might have been that little bit tighter. As the league season draws to a close, the most both teams can hope to achieve is the securing of as many points as possible and improvement on their current league standings. Aston Villa are currently in tenth place and have two matches left to play, they would have to be very fortunate to overtake EK Rolls Royce Red in ninth, maybe EKYC can do them a favour and beat them on Thursday evening. EKYC have improved and are now sitting in seventh place, three points behind East End Thistle and EK Rolls Royce Blue, realistically the best EKYC can now hope for is fifth. So best of luck to both teams and hopefully they play in better conditions from now until the seasons end.