Chasetown 0 Villa XI 3

Jul 31 2006 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN Laursen successfully came through a scheduled 45-minute run-out on his return to action at Chasetown.

The Danish international felt no reaction to the knee injury that ruled him out of all but one game last season.

He was substituted at half-time, with Villa leading 3-0. Now Laursen hopes to be included in the Villa squad for the pre-season tour of Germany and Holland.

French midfielder Mathieu Berson shine for Kevin MacDonald's men who grabbed all three goals inside the first 15 minutes thorugh Sam Williams, Danny MacDonald and Stephen O'Halloran.

Williams opened the scoring for Villa, prodding home as keeper Simon Bryan could only parry Christian Kabeya's right-wing cross.

MacDonald doubled Villa's lead on 13 minutes, firing low into the corner as he met Lund's right-wing cross.

Villa grabbed a third as O'Halloran slotted home from Kabeya's near-post corner.

Villa made a double change on the hour-mark as Cypriot triallists Panayiotou and Georgiou replaced MacDonald and Damian Bellon.

VILLA: Olejnik, Lund, Green, Laursen, O'Halloran, Berson, Kabeya, D.Bellon, Williams, Osbourne, MacDonald. Subs: (from) Morgan, Henderson, Lowry (Laursen ht), McGurk (for Kabeya70), Y.Bellon (for Green 70), Panayiotou (for Bellon 60), Georgiou (for MacDonald 60).

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