Sat. 13th April. Toolstation Premier Div. Westbury United 2 Cribbs 2
An exciting draw at Meadow Lane with Westbury captain and star man, Steve Hulbert, heading in a late equaliser to maintain United’s push for 4th place.
Dan Kovacs scored an early goal to put the hosts ahead, although there was a suspicion of handball before he rifled in from 20 yards, after latching onto Ian Jeffery’s direct pass.
Josh Ferguson gave a prominent performance and was at the heart of a number of his side’s best moments and he went close to doubling the lead, but saw his shot deflected wide.
Matt Spiller, George Kellow and Jason Vincent all played well for Cribbs and it was Vincent who went close to drawing them level, but Dan Jordan excellently blocked his fine strike from Spiller’s set piece.
Vincent wasn’t to be denied for long and he got on the end of a great cross by Kellow to score a powerful header on 19.
Ferguson came to the fore after the half hour and won a corner which Jeffery took, forcing the Cribbs defence to clear from right under the crossbar. Ferguson then combined with Kovacs to set up Callum Demkiv, whose shot swerved wide. Cribbs came within inches of a half time lead, but superb defending by Joe Stradling saw him block 2 fierce attempts on the line.
There was barely time to draw breath after the break before Vincent scored with another great header, this time from Spiller’s cross from wide on the right.
With Steve Hulbert at the helm, United had to defend strongly to keep their in-form opponents from adding a 3rd, then a quick break led to Demkiv crossing to Ricky Hulbert who diverted his effort off target.
For some reason Westbury kept trying to play the ball out from the back and, alert to this, Cribbs pressed them back. After an error, Vincent went close to scoring a hattrick goal, with Dan Jordan again blocking his attempt.
Clever play by Kovacs and Stradling almost led to United drawing level; Kovacs played in Stradling whose run into the box led to the ball being half cleared to Kovacs and he hit a curler which was well cleared off the line by Spille. In search of changing the score, the Kirkpatricks made a triple substitution and one of the subs, Will Stead, forced Archie Watts into a low save.
Westbury kept plugging away but almost conceded to Vincent again, however his 2nd attempt at notching a hattrick also failed.
Westbury forced a corner which was only partially cleared to Jeffery and he achieved his 2nd assist of the afternoon to set up Steve Hulbert, who matched his leadership and defending with the bullet levelling header!
*Star Man; Steve Hulbert (Westbury United)
