Villa reserves traveled to Wigan this afternoon and suffered their second successive defeat having gone 11 games unbeaten previous to the 3-1 defeat to Wolves last week. A young Villa side included the likes of 16-year-old Jordan Graham playing from the left and 15-year-old Robinson from the right. Stephen Warnock captained the side, lining up in centre midfield alongside Gary Gardner, arguably the man of the match once again, in a game the second string ended up losing 1-0 after a cross-cum-shot free-kick from Wigan’s Redmond. The young lions had plenty of possession but failed to carve out enough clear cut chances in a scrappy game at times.
Villa lined up as follows; Parish, Berry, Devine, Warnock, Deeney, Carruthers, Gardner, Herd, Graham, Robinson, Forrester. Subs: Taylor, Coton, Williams, Burke, Johnson.
16 year old Graham started on the left with 15 year old Robinson on the right while Durrell Berry played at centre-back with Daniel Devine and Herd filled in at right-back.
The home side had a good chance early on when Morris raced on to a through ball before rounding Elliot Parish and cutting back to Myler who shot wide under pressure.
Front man for Villa and constant livewire Harry Forrester then picked out Robinson on the right who cut inside, drilling a left-foot shot goalwards which Nicholls pushed behind.
The first of three incredible cross field passes in the match from Gardner then found the youngster again who was fouled. The resulting free-kick was floated in by Carruthers but Devine’s well-timed header sailed over.
Late on Villa had what was their second reasonable claim for a penalty in the match when Warnock’s cross from the right looked destined for Devine but for a tug on the defender’s shirt. Again no penalty. Harsh on Villa but a 1-0 defeat sees them fail to capitalize on the 2 games in hand they held against league leaders Arsenal who we thumpred 10-1 earlier in the season.
