Fairfield Villa 2 Handsworth United 1

SUBSTITUTE Martin Townsend bagged the winner ten minutes before full time to make sure Villa go into Christmas on a winning streak.

Victory made sure that Fairfield are still in the chase for a promotion place in the Midland Combination Division One on Saturday.

Joint manage Lee Shaw was pleased with the result against a Handsworth side, which was much changed from the one that lost 11-0 the week before.

He said: "Handsworh had four or five new players and they made a difference.

"But we coped with them quite well and never looked like losing."

Pete Rose opened the scoring in the first half when he rifled the ball past Handsworth's goalkeeper from just outside the box.

Rose could have doubled the scored with a similar chance, but this time the goalkeeper was equal to his shot.

Villa were pulled level in the second half after giving the ball away in midfield.

However, Villa piled forward in search of a second goal and Townsend bagged the winner in the 80th minute.

"We made some changes in the second half and they came off. We had enough chances to score a lot more goals", added Shaw.