FAIRFIELD Villa were comfortable 2-0 winners in their Division Two trip to second-bottom Bolehall Swifts in the Midland Football League.
Keith Draper’s men took all three points to go tenth after goals in either half from Ross Dempster and Dan Ludlow at Rene Road, where former Northfield Town winger Jake Wicketts was afforded his Swans debut.
With another difficult playing surface to contend with, direct football was the order of the day, an approach which worked in the Swans’ favour when creating a plethora of early chances.
Wicketts put the ball on a plate for Aaron Westwood to fire goalwards with a first-time effort, though Bolehall custodian Matthew Brennan was equal to the shot.
A long pass over the Swifts’ defence brought the opener when Dempster latched onto the ball before finishing clinically for his third goal in a Fairfield shirt.
Further opportunities fell the way of Pete Jenvey, who was denied by an excellent close-range save, while Dempster and Ludlow also sent attempts narrowly wide of the mark.
Frustrations spilled over when a free-kick was awarded in Bolehall’s favour, a decision which left Dempster incensed and earned him a ten-minute spell in the sin bin.
Fortunately for the visitors, the loss of Dempster did not harm their chances of success going into the half-time break with a one-goal lead.
Eight minutes after the interval, Villa finally had a two-goal cushion when Laurence Martin fed a lofted through ball into Ludlow’s path, leaving the midfielder to do the rest and nudge the ball into the net.
Substitute Alfie Bloomer became the second Swans player to be sent to the sin bin, while David Delaney went close to adding a third of the game but for his goal-bound strike to clatter the post.
Fairfield host Feckenham, who reside in fourth, at the Recreation Ground on Saturday (2pm).
REUEL Prescod stole the show for Barnt Green Spartak with a hat-trick in last weekend’s entertaining 3-3 draw at rock-bottom Redditch Borough.
GJ Singh and Neil Martin’s side stay ninth following an encounter where Borough were pegged back three times by the clinical Prescod – who took his tally to 12 for the season.
His first, a low header bundled into the net at the far post on 20 minutes, was followed by a well-timed run and sliding finish seven minutes after half-time.
While the hat-trick goal was somewhat fortuitous, given Maximus Court’s howler to drop an overhit cross into the striker’s path, it brought the visitors back on level terms with 20 minutes to play.
Spartak almost took maximum points in the final minute when Darren Green’s drive headed for goal, but the shot clipped the outside of the post as the points were shared.
Charles Wilkinson, Will Skelton and David Phelan were the Redditch goalscorers, earning the league strugglers their first point of the campaign.
Barnt Green welcome 14th-placed Lane Head to The Pavilions on Saturday (2pm), a team who will still be sore after being on the receiving end of a 10-2 drubbing by Coton Green last time out.
