VILLA DEFEAT WYCOMBE IN FIRST PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY

By Ryan Ghee
July 27 2005

Aston Villa got their pre-season off to a perfect start with a comfortable 2-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers at the Causeway Satdium. All four of Villa's new signings made their debut with Kevin Phillips bagging a debut goal.

It took only 24 minutes for Kevin Phillips to score his first goal for the club and it came in some style. Gavin McCann played an inch-perfect ball to the feet of Phillips who capped off the move by calmly lobbing the ball over the goalkeeper's head from 20 yards.
Earlier in the match, Wycombe goalkeeper, Talia, smartly denied Juan Pablo Angel and Patrik Berger following long-distance efforts.
The remainder of the match was mostly dominated by Aston Villa with the second goal coming in the 67th minute, courtesy of peter Whittingham. After some great play from Solano and De la Cruz on the left, Whittingham arrived in the box to slot home and double Villa's lead.
Villa rarely looked likely to concede for the remainder of the game and Wycombe's only telling effort on goal came in the 87th minute when Taylor denied Johnson from close-range after Griffin had rattled the crossbar.