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.