WESTBURY belied their lowly position to give third placed Barnstaple a severe fright in awful conditions.
Heavy rain, an ever softening, skiddy surface and a gusting wind initially caused problems for both teams as the match got off to a slow start, but for the most part this was an entertaining, sometimes controversial, game which United lost after holding a lead until the 81st minute.
Town were the first to threaten through Jed Harper-Penman, whose skill and cross set up Ryan Turner, but he headed inches wide. Harper-Penman then got on the end of Lee Francis’ cross but saw his curling shot excellently fingertipped over by Rob Brown.
Westbury began to create some openings after the half hour and it was from this point that the match became enthralling as they went toe to toe with one of the league’s best sides. Charlie Walton broke through and brought a brave piece of work out of Ryan Draper. The home side then counter attacked through Turner and it was the alert Dan Hurkett who raced back from midfield to deny a shot.
Draper did well again soon after when battling play by DJ Wheeler set up Jake Herd and his cross found Nick Taylor but Draper pounced as the winger was about to shoot. Play then flowed from end to end as the half drew to a close with Brown showing good hands to deny Jake Jenkins in a one on one situation, while there was controversy at the other end when Wheeler outpaced Ross Jones who tugged him back but no foul was given!
Taylor caused a shock five minutes after the break when he opened the scoring by outpacing Liam Gregory on the right wing and finishing with a skidding low strike that flew past Draper!
United were on top of the play, young defenders Ally Bradley, Joe Edwards and Callum Cooper kept Barnstaple’s front line to only half chances and with confidence flowing had a few opportunities to double their lead, but Draper excelled to keep his team in the game; substitute Matt Dyer forced the keeper into a good save but Draper did amazingly seconds later to parry Walton’s rebound at point blank range!
Having seen their number one keep their deficit to a single goal, Town went all out for an equaliser, and it took another fine clearance by Hurkett to prevent Gregory while Brown managed to scramble the resulting corner away from danger.
The hosts drew level on 81 when in the blink of an eye Turner hit a screamer into Brown’s top left hand corner and, with Westbury’s heads down, Brown was adjudged to have fouled Turner with the striker and ball going away from goal and a penalty was awarded with Billy Tucker scored to put them ahead.
Try as they might Westbury just couldn’t create a chance to claim a highly deserved point and there was more controversy near the end when a incident between Edwards and home player Shaun Copp saw the latter kick out at Edwards which sparked a melee between frustrated players in the worsening weather and, despite having to go off injured, Copp also received a red card!
STAR MEN – Ryan Draper (Barnstaple Town) and Dan Hurkett (Westbury United). TEAM – Rob Brown, Ally Bradley, Jake Herd, Joe Edwards, Callum Cooper, Marc Scammell, Nick Taylor, Dan Hurkett, Charlie Walton, DJ Wheeler, Mark Young. SUBS – Alex Shaftoe, Matt Dyer, Matty Bown (all used).
