Chard Town 1 – 0 Westbury Utd – Toolstation First Div., Saturday 20th August

ON a rainy afternoon, Westbury made the 50 mile journey down to visit Chard Town FC; it was a good performance by Westbury but unfortunately they came away with nothing to show for it.

After 5 minutes Chard broke through with some smart play in the Westbury half which resulted in  Max Westlake shooting from the edge of the area. The shot deflected off Westbury’s Jake Stephenson, who had thrown himself in the way to try and block, and Charlie Heydon dived to his right but didn’t manage to keep the ball out.

Westbury gained their composure and the match was pretty even until the 36th minute when a long ball went through to Westbury keeper Charlie Heydon, the wet ball slipped through Heydon’s hands and fell into the path of Chard’s James Boyland. Boyland couldn’t get the slippery ball under control and didn’t manage to take advantage of the open goal in front of him.

After 39 minutes, with the rain coming down hard, the referee, Damian Pelka, pulled up with an injured hamstring which caused a 5 minute delay while the assistant referee stepped into the middle and a replacement assistant was found. Fortunately there was a local referee in the crowd who was happy to do it.

Westbury came out for the second half with their tails up. They huffed and puffed, forcing Chard deeper and deeper, and on 57 minutes Westbury captain James Hounsell was man-handled in the box and the referee blew for a penalty.

Chard keeper Jonathan Hill saved Jamie Jordan’s penalty, the rebound fell to Jordan’s feet but Hill managed to save that too. The remainder of the match was all Westbury with Chard using every trick in the book to slow down the game.

All in all Westbury can be proud of their performance with the knowledge that they’ll play worse and win matches this season.

Westbury team: Charlie Heydon, Pete Sturman, Grant Gunning, Matt Jones, James Hounsell, Jake Stephenson, Jamie Jordan, Ian Groves, Ben Forester, Dean Caslake, George Bendle. Goals: Max Westlake (5min). Cautions: Jake Stephenson (37min), James Hounsell (85min), Charlie Heydon (after the final whistle).

Greg Coulson