WITH the strong wind in their favour, the visitors took control of the first period keeping their hosts pinned back in their own half for much of the time. However, despite this, it was the home side that nearly opened the scoring.

A strong break down the right from Villa’s midfielder, Sam Harcombe, saw his accurate cross into the Newtown box, find team-mate, Joe Adams, who in turn fired in a shot from around 15 yards out that was well gathered by the visiting keeper.

Newtown slowly began to dominate their hosts and within a 20-minute period, duly found themselves with a commanding 3-0 lead, with all three goals coming from sustained pressure on the Villa rear-guard.

But for some brave defending from man-of-the-match Ollie Symes together with team-mate Chris Medakovic, the home side could have found themselves deeper in deficit, as the two players worked hard to block several Newtown scoring opportunities, and as was the case the week before, Villa went into the break trailing.

A rousing second-half performance was to follow from Villa as they looked to make the most of the wind, now in their favour.

Slowly, the home side began to get a more even grip on proceedings as pressure now seemed to feature more so at the Newtown end.

The hosts found the target early on with a precise Joe Adams lob over the keeper, following a great run from team-mate Leonardo Carl that pulled the visiting defender away from the striker, leaving him to finish unchallenged.

This seemed to give Villa even more confidence as they continued to attack the Newtown goal.

It was soon 3-2 as Sam Harcombe drove home a Will Helm corner, that was partially cleared out to the awaiting midfielder on the edge of the penalty area.

With around five minutes of play left and with a blizzard now in force, the home side deservedly managed to get back on level terms.

Again Villa applied pressure on the Newtown goal, and following another Sam Harcombe cross, the ball fell to team-mate Josh Smith in the six-yard box.

His first shot was well blocked by the advancing Newtown keeper, but the loose ball again found the same Villa player, who this time drove it home high into the net much to his and his team-mates’ delight.

The goal was no more than the Villa deserved as both teams played out the remaining moments of this very entertaining match.