Football
Oakes looks for derby day tonic

FAIRFIELD Villa joint manager Paul Oakes will be hoping to put a tough week behind him when his side entertain Northfield in Midland Combination Division One tomorrow.

Oakes’ chase of former striker Stuart Hall failed to bring any reward before Villa were beaten 3-1 at league leaders Blackwood on Saturday.

The Recreation Ground side were then dealt a further blow when promising young goalkeeper Tom Savage left to join local rivals Bromsgrove Sporting.

“It is at times like this you wonder why you do the job,” Oakes quipped.

“But you have to learn lessons from it and that is exactly what I am doing. I think I have learnt more this season than my previous six at the club and hopefully that can be to good use next year.”

Savage’s last performance for Villa proved to be an outstanding one as he made a host of top quality saves against Blackwood which drew praise from Oakes.

“He was exemplary on Saturday. I’ve known for a while what a good goalkeeper he is and always knew he would move on eventually, though I didn’t expect it to be this season. With all due respect to Bromsgrove Sporting, I fully expect him to move on to bigger things again in a few years time.

“Obviously we are disappointed to lose him but he goes with our blessing and we wish him all the best for the future.”

Jacob Snape’s hat-trick proved the undoing of Fairfield on Saturday with Scott Gaffney’s late goal proving nothing more than a consolation.

But despite the defeat, Oakes is looking forward to tackling them again on December 17 to try and get quick revenge.

“You could see they were a top four side but I don’t think particularly any better than the other sides up there.

“I felt we made them look good on Saturday because we were way below out best.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s derby with Northfield, Oakes has warned his side to ignore their rivals’ position at the bottom of the table.

“I have great respect for Northfield’s management duo and can guarantee this will be just as hard a game as if we were playing somebody top of the table,” he said.

“It is always an extremely competitive game against them and they have a victory over us already this season so we will have to be prepared.”

With the departure of Savage and stalwart Marc Rogers out injured, Oakes has signed Owen Jackson to start between the sticks whilst also hoping to unveil a Spanish defender for the first time.