Away | 19 September 2026
Villa progressed in the FA Cup with a professional and dominant display against Pagham in East Sussex.
Our hosts have had an impressive run in the competition so far. In the first qualifying round, they beat higher-league opponents Ascot United 2-0 in a replay. Before that, they recorded a 2-0 win over Balham in the Preliminary Round and, in the Extra Preliminary Round, secured a 2-1 away victory at Hollands & Blair.
Pagham, who play in the Southern Combination League (Step 5), have also made a good start to the season, winning four of their opening six fixtures.
Changes for Villa saw Ethan Light return to the back line, while Elliott Bolton also returned and Nikolay Zlatev made his first start.
Villa showed dominance from the start, getting one of the earliest goals of the round when they netted after just 1 minute and 42 seconds. Brandon Barzey received the ball on the corner of the box, cut outside to break away from his man and delivered a low ball that Billy Nutbeam turned in at the near post.
Villa maintained possession and doubled their lead through Zlatev eight minutes later. George Wells drove forward and took a shot from around 25 yards. The blocked effort fell to Zlatev on the edge of the box, who, with precision, placed the ball out of reach of the outstretched keeper.
Pagham had some short spells of possession and drove forward on a couple of occasions, but Villa's back line remained firm and prevented the hosts from creating any clear shooting opportunities.
Zlatev then got his second and Villa's third on 29 minutes. A long ball forward was pounced upon by the forward, who beat the Lions defender to the loose ball before turning and unleashing a fierce shot from the edge of the box into the top-left corner, just out of reach of the diving Jordan Brown.
Villa continued to dominate possession, with chances falling to Zlatev, Nutbeam and Defise, but it was Michael Harding who got Villa's fourth in the 39th minute.
The ball was pushed through to Josh Casey, who turned and slid it to Harding. He spotted a gap in the defence, took a touch and fired home from 10 yards to give Villa a four-goal lead at half-time.
With one eye on the busy schedule ahead, Villa made a change at the break, bringing on Hayden Vaughn for Ethan Light, who had only recently returned from injury.
The hosts had an opportunity to pull one back. David Crouch picked up a loose ball and took a shot from around 30 yards, but Dickinson dived down to his right to stop the ball dead and gather it safely.
Villa then had the chance to add a fifth when a penalty was awarded after Harding, through on goal, was brought down by the Lions keeper. The team gave the penalty to Zlatev, who was looking to complete his hat-trick. It was a good, powerful penalty, but Brown dived the right way and pushed the shot wide.
Villa made further changes in the 62nd minute, with Jake Leahy and Glenn Gabriel coming on to replace Guy Ansah-Palmer and Michael Harding.
Villa did add the fifth on 66 minutes. A free-kick out on the right was converted as Vaughn lofted the ball into the top-left corner of the net, a fine demonstration of free-kick precision to make it 5-0 to Villa.
Pagham had a further opportunity to grab a consolation goal when they broke forward. A ball was played into space and Villa were briefly caught out, but some superb defending from substitute Toure Williams saw him nip in to take the ball off the Pagham player and turn the move into a Villa counter-attack.
Williams passed out to Bolton, who progressed up the field before slipping the ball through to Vaughn near the halfway line. Vaughn drove forward and spotted Zlatev in space to his right. Zlatev then saw that Vaughn had continued his run into space, and rather than shooting, squared the ball to him.
Vaughn fired home across goal and into the bottom-right corner to round off the scoring.
This rounded off what can only be described as a professional and dominant performance, with Villa preventing the home side from getting going at any point during the match.
The result sees Villa progress to the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Cup. The last time Villa reached this round was in 2023/24 season, where Villa faced Horsham.
The draw will be released on Monday, 21st September, while Villa return to league action on Tuesday night with a trip to Berkhamsted.
