Westbury won for the first time in 15 matches and kept just their second clean sheet of the season with a superb, hard working all round performance.
Oldland frequently pressurized the home defence who all stood firm with Nathan Hallett-Young, Dan Hurkett and Callum Cooper outstanding while when they did break through keeper Callum Hotine excelled with several top drawer saves.
The Abbots threatened first with Lewis Powell shooting straight at Hotine and Ashley Bernard having an effort scrambled away, however United opened the scoring on 10 minutes when an awful error by visiting keeper Ryan Perry allowed Mitch Spackman’s speculative 35 yard shot to go in!
Fuelled by the confidence from taking the lead, the hosts doubled their advantage on 22 with Nick Taylor powering a header into the net from Grant Gunning’s corner!
Oldland stepped up a gear around the half hour and several fine moves led to chances with Hotine excelling to tip away Jack Parker’s fierce strike before he saved another attempt by Powell; from that incident the ball was played back into the box and Josh Dempsey bundled it over the line but the goal was disallowed for a foul on Hotine.
Westbury had a shout for a penalty turned down when new signing Brett Partner showed good pace to break through before being challenged by Jordan Greenwood.
Chances continued to come at both ends just before the break; another pinpoint Gunning corner again found Taylor whose header was scrambled away leading to a counter attack led by Parker who set up Powell and his shot was blocked on the line!
Play got off to a slow start after the interval and it took until after the hour for an opening when Josh Williams’ header grazed the home side’s crossbar. Westbury counter attacked through Taylor and Maguire with the latter hitting a great angled shot that Perry held well.
The closing 20 minutes saw Oldland pile the pressure on United’s solid back line, initially forcing direct free kicks which both Greenwood and Simon Lashley fired over the bar before Hurkett put himself in the way of a blasting point blank strike by Powell! Hotine did well to save Tom Hutton’s skiddy 30 yarder and the hosts managed to see out the 11 minutes of added on time to claim victory!
*STAR TEAM –Westbury United. TEAM – Callum Hotine, Josh Maguire, Grant Gunning, Dan Hurkett, Callum Cooper, Nathan Hallett-Young, Ryan Elliott, Mitch Spackman, Brett Partner, Matt Mead, Nick Taylor. SUBS – Neil Grant, Marc Lanfear (used) Nick Mead, Huw Buckley, Luke Maine (unused).
