Fri. 19th April. Toolstation Premier Div. Bradford Town 5 Westbury United 2
Good Friday saw Westbury travel to local rivals Bradford Town for their penultimate away match of the season.
The sun shone bright, and the thermometers were well above the 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) mark. There was a good crowd of 232, each and every one of them respected the minute’s silence that was held for local footballer and friend to a lot of the players on the pitch, Ben Millard, who sadly lost his battle with bowel cancer recently, before kick-off. An incredible demonstration by everyone present.
The match got underway and the referee wanted to stamp her authority early on by showing Ollie Webb a yellow card for what looked like a fine tackle on the edge of the Westbury box; the resultant freekick was pushed onto the post by Ed Baldy in the Westbury goal and bounced clear to safety.
On the six minute mark Callum Demkiv had the chance to put Westbury in front when the ball fell to him in the Bradford penalty area but his tame shot was off target. Bradford got a penalty just after the ten minute mark, Jamie Jordan was adjudged to have tripped Bradford’s Cottle in the area, Prangley stepped up and finished the penalty low to the left.
Just five minutes later Bradford doubled their lead, a corner delivered to the far post was headed back into the danger area by skipper Davidson for his centre back partner Stocks to volley home.
Westbury’s afternoon went from bad to worse on the 20 minute mark, Demkiv with a silly tackle on the halfway line gave the referee no option and was eventually shown a straight red, after the referee had calmed the situation down she shocked everyone watching by showing the red card to Dan Kovacs and then turned to show it to Demkiv too, thankfully the red displayed to Kovacs was a mistake and Westbury were only down to ten.
Westbury decided to make an early change and took off left back Ian Jeffery and replaced him with centre midfielder Will Stead; they shuffled the formation and went three at the back, soon after Jordan Pinder got turned by Bradford number 11 Morris and was powerless to prevent him from driving into the box and finishing to make it 3-0.
Even though they only had ten men and were trailing by three goals, Westbury weren’t giving up; Ricky Hulbert won a freekick on the edge of the area a few minute before half time, the ball dangerously bounced around the Bradford area and definitely hit an arm of a player on the ground before it was cleared but the referee either didn’t see it or somehow didn’t think it was a handball. Westbury continued to push and got their reward seconds before halftime, Baldy delivered a long free kick to Kovacs, he cut inside on the edge of the area and finished with his left foot to give Westbury a lifeline and make it 3-1 at halftime
Another change at halftime for Westbury saw Jamie Jordan off and Josh Ferguson on, the energy and pace from Ferguson and Stradling in the Westbury midfield was causing a few problems and with Ricky Hulbert drifting into the wide areas and targeting the full backs, Westbury seemed to have a plan that will be successful. A neat bit of play on the Westbury right saw Ricky hold up the ball and set Stradling to cross to Kovacs, who appeared to tweek something as he jumpe; he decided to slap the ball out of the air with his hand, a yellow card was issued which promoted Westbury to make their final sub, Kovacs off, Mark Robinson on.
Hailston made it 4-1 just before the hour; Westbury had thrown bodies forward to try and get back in the game which left them short at the back so Cottle had the time to neatly thread a pass through to his teammate to score their fourth.
Westbury weren’t done though; five minutes later skipper Steve Hulbert won the ball back in the left back position, he played it forward to Robinson who gave it to Ferguson and he exchanged passes with Stradling who finished to make it 4-2.
Stradling was involved again ten minutes later; he took a quick throw and received the ball back high on the right, his cross was met by the head of Robinson but unfortunately it was straight at Bradford’s keeper, Dibble. Another Bradford breakaway took advantage of Westbury’s defence saw Hailston grab his second and Bradford’s fifth.
Just before 90 minutes Robinson pounced on a mistake by Prangley in the Bradford midfield, his low shot was well struck but Dibble got a strong hand to it to make sure the score finished 5-2.
Westbury’s ten men never gave up and tried to get back in the game but on the day Bradford were too strong and managed to keep the local bragging rights for the second time this season.
