A 3-1 victory at home against Almondsbury UWE took Westbury United’s league unbeaten run to an impressive 9 games.
A goal just before half time by George Bendle and a brace late on by Jordan Pinder made sure that Westbury took all 3 points to take them to 57 points, the best points total since they finished 5th in the 2009/10 season.
With their regular left back, Ferris Lamarabet, unavailable Leon Greenland dropped back into defence which meant a slight shuffle in midfield, with Jake Stephenson starting in the middle alongside Pinder, Jamie Jordan (JJ) starting on the left and Joe Kirkpatrick starting on the right, the other change to the starting line-up came upfront with Martin Johnson dropping to the bench to be replaced by Bendle.
Almondsbury arrived with only one substitute, after having a couple of last minute drop outs earlier in the day.
The match kicked off at 2pm and in the first minute Kirkpatrick found himself with a shooting opportunity, the shot was blocked and went out for a corner. Westbury continued with the constant pressure and there was some good interplay between Kirkpatrick, Stephenson and Ricky Hulbert on the edge of the Almondsbury area.
On the 19 minute mark Westbury won a corner from another Kirkpatrick long range effort. JJ delivered perfectly onto the head of Dan Jordan (DJ) but his header was blocked and cleared away. The clearance fell to Pinder who passed the ball out wide for Bendle to deliver, the cross evaded everyone except Stephenson lurking at the far post, he had time to bring it down and shoot on target forcing an excellent save from the Almondsbury goalkeeper.
Westbury’s defence was on top of the Almondsbury strike force dealing with any balls forward. The midfield were firmly in control and were regularly getting into shooting positions. Even though Westbury were dominating, it took until the 46th minute for them to break the deadlock, mainly because the Almondsbury goalkeeper was performing excellently.
The goal came from a Kirkpatrick delivery; after Stephenson had won the ball in midfield he played a pass out right which Kirkpatrick managed to get to and beat the fullback, he delivered the cross for Bendle to coolly finish at the back post. Westbury went in at half-time 1-0 up.
The second half started in the same manner. Westbury, marshalled by their superb captain Dan Price, continued to probe and didn’t try to force the game. They thought they’d got their second on the hour mark when Bendle had drifted out to the left to deliver a low cross, Pinder heard the shout from Hulbert so dummied the ball just in front of the penalty spot, unfortunately the goal didn’t come as a defender managed to sneak in and put it out for a corner.
The second came on the 80th minute, when a long pass into Hulbert was cushioned down with his chest into the path of Pinder who calmly finished. Westbury instantly made a double substitution with JJ and Bendle being replaced by Johnson and Mattie Mantay. Mantay was instantly involved, winning the ball in midfield and giving it to Johnson, Johnson shifted the ball well to create space for that man Pinder to get his second with a lovely curling shot that satifyingly went in off the post.
Almondsbury continued their fight and were still working hard with their number 10, finding some nice pockets of space. On the 85th minute he managed to get a shot on target that was well saved by Carl Crabtree. The resulting corner came in and Crabtree couldn’t manage to get through the mass of bodies, so was left out of position when the finish came in to make it 3-1.
All in all, a very good performance from Westbury which if it wasn’t for the superb performance of the Almondsbury goal keeper, could have won by a bigger margin, Price marshalled the defence well, meaning that Crabtree had a quiet day.
Team: Carl Crabtree, Grant Gunning, Leon Greenland, Jake Stephenson, Dan Jordan, Dan Price(C), Jamie Jordan, Jordan Pinder, Ricky Hulbert, George Bendle, Joe Kirkpatrick. Subs: Sean Brereton, Mattie Mantay, Martin Johnson (used), Matt Jones, Keirran Ramsey (unused)
Westbury Star Man: Dan Price.
