FAIRFIELD Villa manager Paul Oakes was pleased with the display, if not the result, after his side went down to leaders Stretton Eagles 2-1 in the Midland Combination Premier Division.

Despite losing, Oakes felt his team had produced their best performance of the season so far.

Villa had been trailing after a poor back pass by Martin Slevin allowed Eagles to score and the home side then doubled their lead.

Scott Gaffney pulled a goal back and Jamie Hatfield saw a gilt-edged chance go to waste when he directed a close range header off target.

However, Oakes was left feeling upbeat, particularly because several absences had seen youngsters Ellis Blakemore and Dominic Strevens called up from the reserves.

He said: “The performance was excellent and I was very pleased by the team.

“We lost but there was nothing in it and on another day we would have got something from the game.

“We were missing several players and had to draft in some of the younger lads from the reserves, so it was pleasing to see the way we competed.”

Villa will be turning their attentions to Saturday’s home game against Chelmsley Town, who have not had the best of starts to the campaign (3pm kick-off).

Oakes is expecting a full complement of players to choose from for the clash.

He added: “It’s about puttng the performance and the result together and hopefully we can do that on Saturday.

“We’ve got everyone available which means we’ll have a headache over selection in a good way.”

Meanwhile, Droitwich Spa will be hoping for sweet success when they entertain Cadbury Athletic on Saturday (3pm kick-off-.

They are still waiting for their first win of the season after three games, they lost 4-3 at Feckenham last Thursday and 2-0 against Greenhill on Saturday.