VICE-CHAIRMAN Paul Oakes says Fairfield Villa are riding the crest of the confidence wave following their Presidents Cup victory over Paget Rangers on Saturday.
Villa booked their place in the second round of the inter-Midland League competition with a 4-3 victory at the newly-laid synthetic pitch at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground – the home of Rangers.
Ben Smith had put the visitors ahead before the prolific Dan Carter levelled for Rangers after seven minutes. However, a hat-trick from Connor Collins, including two penalties, fired Villa into an unassailable 4-1 lead.
Despite ten-man Rangers clawing back to 4-3 thanks to goals from Mark Bellingham and David Franklin, Villa held on for a fabulous victory.
Oakes said: “Paget had not lost since the first game of the season to Redditch Borough and that result has since been turned over by the Midland League as they fielded ineligible players.
“It was going to be tough for us with Paget playing on their new pitch and the fact they’d recent been crowned the overall team of the month in the league.
“But I’ve always said we’re a match for anyone in this league when we are at full strength and it showed.
“The football we played on Saturday was the best I have seen for quite some time.”
The victory at Rangers extended Villa’s unbeaten run in all competitions to five games and they’ll be hoping to extend that to six tomorrow (Saturday) when they travel to Knowle (2pm KO).
And with the Solihull-based side without the services of prolific striker Tom Craine who has joined up with Midland League Division One leaders Bromsgrove Sporting, Oakes is confident Villa can get a result.
“The confidence is sky high right now and with Knowle having to re-adjust to life without Tom there’s no reason why we can’t go over there and get the three points,” he said.
“We knew what we were going to get when we appointed Wayne [Davis] and the rest of the management team because they were not used to losing with the VBG Fairfield Sunday side.
“I cannot praise the management team highly enough for what they have done so far and long may it continue.”
Pete Jenvey and Lewis Smith will miss the Knowle game but Villa are expected to welcome back Ollie Booth.
Meanwhile, Villa have been drawn against Paget Rangers in the second round of the Smedley Crooke Memorial Charity Cup.
