Match Preview: Villena CF v CD Jávea

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VILLENA CF v CD JÁVEA
Sunday 6th April, 5.00pm
Campo La Solana, Villena

GETTING THERE

Villena lies about 45km inland north-west of the city of Alicante, just off the A-31 motorway. The football ground is located outside the town to the east on the road to Biar. It is about 3hr 38 minutes drive from Xàbia.

OUR OPPONENTS

Villena CF has its roots in a football club that was formed in 1920 under the name of Villena FC which reached the Tercera Divisón in the early 1950s, then the third level in the national football pyramid in Spain. After dropping back down to the regional league, the club disbanded in 1970.

The immediate forerunner of the current club, CD Villena, emerged in 1970, playing in the Murcian regional leagues until promotion to the Tercera División in 1974. Re-structing of the national pyramid in 1977 saw the creation of the Segunda División B which resulted in the Tercera División dropping a level to become Step 4 in the system.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the club switched regularly between the Tercera División and the Regional Preferente (now playing under the Valencian Football Federation jurisdiction). At the end of the 1992-93 season, it finished third and won a spot in the promotion play-offs to the Segunda División B but the club didn’t manage to get past the round-robin post-season competition.

At the end of the 1995-96 season, CD Villena finished second from bottom and suffered relegation back to the regional leagues where it has remained ever since, switching between the Regional Preferente and the Primera Regional.

In 2004, following off-the-field issues, the club merged with Peña Villanense before a new club was formed the following year, Villena CF.

This season, Villena CF have been struggling at the wrong end of the table all season but have picked up a few valuable points in the past few weeks but remain in the bottom three.

HEAD 2 HEAD

CD Jávea and Villena CF have played each other 32 times since their first meeting on October 5th 1986 when the rojiblancos lost 1-2 in Villena; the return match on February 15th resulted in a 0-0 draw. At the end of the season, Villena CF finished 5th, well short of the play-offs, whilst CD Jávea managed 8th spot.

The biggest victory for CD Jávea was on March 23rd 2003, a 5-0 victory in an end-of-season unbeaten run of 11 games, ten of which were victories and only five goals were conceded, the sort of form that would clinch the runners-up spot for the rojiblancos and a promotion play-off match against SD Sueca which was lost over two legs. It would be the last time that CD Jávea would come so close to promotion back to the national system for the first time since 1994/1995.

By contrast, Villena CF have rarely scored more than a single goal against CD Jávea, their biggest victory being a 2-0 win at home in November 1999 and they have won just three times in Jávea, the last time way back during the 1997/1998 season.

Back in November, CD Jávea chalked up their biggest win of this season so far, a 5-1 victory at home which lifted the club into fifth spot whilst Villena CF remained second from bottom.

CD Jávea, eight points clear at the top of the table, are the form team of the moment with six successive wins in their last six games and just three points dropped in the last twelve games. Away form continues to be the best of the league with an average of 2.2 points per game on the road. After all their early season struggles, Villena have picked up points and can currently boast the fourth-best form with 11 points from the past six games. Their home form is just below average for the league with 1.4 points per game on their own ground.

PRIMERA FFCV – Group 4

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