Euxton Villa Vets 3 - 7 Bamber Bridge Vets

It was another superb display from the Vets last Friday as they put seven past Euxton Villa Vets in the heavyweight clash at Witton Park.

Despite an excellent run of form in recent games, Vets manager Chris Singleton succumbed to the pressure of multiple pleading texts messages and gave two new players a chance to stake their claim for the coveted black and white shirts of the Vets.

Originally billed as 'Trialist A' and 'Trialist B' a couple of careless tweets earlier in the day revealed the two players to be Bamber Bridge FC first team manager Jamie Milligan and the 'King of Brig' himself Chris (Goose) Marlow.

Initially it looked like the gamble of the new line-up was going to be a mistake. In an all too familiar pattern, the Vets fell behind to an early goal by Villa.

However, Brig's ageing limbs finally warmed up in the tropical Blackburn heat and they turned on the style.

Two goals each for Simon 'The Bald Eagle' Carey and Kenny Mayers, and goals from Jamie Nay, latecomer JT and a debut goal from the Goose saw Brig secure a convincing 7-3 victory.

Surely with a performance like that, surely Jamie Milligan has to be looking and thinking do some of these lads deserve a chance to resurrect their footballing careers with the Brig first team? Age is no barrier when you have the silky skills and tenacity that these lads do.

The lads have a break now for the festive season, but will be back (slightly heavier and possibly hungover) in January for the second half of the season.

---

Player Ratings (by our anonymous assessor):

Wayne Dixon - 8
Couldn’t really prevent any of the goals

Jamie Nay - 8
Full back but played as a winger, needed to be hooked to get focussed again but 4 assists and a goal

James Clegg - 7
Nice and consistent as always

Craig Banks - 8
Solid as a rock, won everything in the air

Ross Bain - 7
Hamstrings tighter than Simon Carey

Jamie Milligan - 8
Rarely lost the ball, great range of passing through the eye of a needle

Neil Crowe - 7
Solid, hardly give the ball away all night

Kenny Mayers - 7
In and out of the first half, had a breather then went back on to score a brace

Simon Carey - 7
Scored 2, should have had 5. Finished up at centre half.

JT - 7
Late arrival, on at half time. Very busy, lovely taken goal

Chris Marlow - 8
Bags of energy, gave the full back a torrid time, goal on debut

Chris Chattel - 6
Took a while to get in to the game, steady last half hour

Andy Richards - 7
Lively first half, always after a Hollywood pass.
Came off at HT to save his legs for two games for two other teams this weekend