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Five for Village FC firsts as the reds close the gap on second place

  • Village FC firsts win 5-0 in the league against Abacus Media Reserves
  • Goals from Declan Moran, Peter Williams, Georgios Mourdoukoutas, Daniel Hodgson, and Leo Elvin
  • Village close the gap to just two point behind second in the table

Village FC’s first team reduce the gap between themselves and second in the league with a convincing 5-0 win over Abacus Media Reserves.

Super sub-Declan Moran helped himself to a goal and two assists. Meanwhile, Georgios Mourdoukoutas, Peter Williams, Leo Elvin, and Daniel Hodgson also got their names on the score sheet.

It took Village FC until the hour mark to find an opener following a nervy and goalless first half.

The victors struggled to keep the ball on the floor in the first 45 minutes and had to fight hard to challenge against the strong wind.

Abacus Media Reserves had the best of the first half chances with a well hit shot ricocheting off the cross bar just before the break.

Village Manchester FC vs Abacus Media Reserves in league match
Image: Gordon S Marino

A half time substitution saw Declan Moran come onto the left for Village. It took the number 22 just 15 minutes to make an impact as he found their opener.

A lofted ball back across goal from Matthew Hodgson found Moran who cushioned it perfectly with his chest before bending a right footed shot towards goal.

The Abacus keeper managed to get a hand to it, but it wasn’t enough to stop Village FC from taking the lead. 1-0.

Village Manchester FC vs Abacus Media Reserves in league match
Image: Gordon S Marino

From there the floodgates opened and it was only a few minutes before they made it two.

This time, a right footed corner from the goal scorer found his centre back, Peter Williams who headed it in at the back post to make it 2-0 to the boys in red.

At this point Village began to dominate and killed the game off with their third in the 75th minute.

Arguably the pick of the bunch. Abacus failed to clear in the air allowing Georgios to hit a beautiful looping volley from outside the box, leaving the keeper to watch on in amazement as it found the net.

With the game all but over Declan decided to cement his man of the match performance with a brilliant long ball into the box on the halfway line. The searching cross met the head of Daniel Hodgson who thumped the ball onto the bar and over the line to make it 4-0.

The bombardment of goals by Village FC ended two minutes before full time. Striker, Leo Elvin stepped up to take a 35-yard free kick which he blasted over the wall and right towards the keeper. The pace on the ball meant he couldn’t keep it out as Village ended the day with a comfortable 5-0 win at home in the league.

Village Manchester FC vs Abacus Media Reserves in league match
Image: Gordon S Marino

NQ spoke to Village firsts coach after the game.

He said: “I think 5-0 maybe flattered us a bit but when you look at the chances in the game we did dominate. We weren’t as good on the ball today as we have been, but the conditions today made it tricky. However, I think we were well worth the win.”

When asked whether he thinks Village can win the Gay Football Supporters’ Network national cup he said: “Of course we can, we’ve won it three times, we’re the only team in the UK to do that. We have a great squad; we have every chance.”

Finally, when asked about Declan’s performance he said: “I thought he did very well. He was unlucky not to start.”

“He has a knack of finding his way into the 6-yard line and scoring goals and as you saw, the second we took the lead there was no looking back. Great contribution from him and not the first time he’s done that for us.”

Village FC’s next fixture is at home to Leicester Wildecats on Saturday the 5th of February in the GFSN national cup.

• All credits for photography go to Gordon S Marino. Check out his website here