Corsham Town 0-2 Westbury Utd – Toolstation Division One, Weds 24th August

Westbury’s good start to the season continued with a very good away performance against Corsham. 

The weather reporters were warning that there was a storm in the air but this didn’t dampen Westbury’s or their amazing travelling “Ultra’s” spirits, the team performed on the pitch whilst the Ultra’s banged their drum and sang their songs off it.

Westbury were in control in the early stages but a couple of mistakes lead to chances for Corsham, after 7 minutes Corsham pounced on a mistake in the Westbury midfield to break through and force a great double save from Westbury goalkeeper Charlie Heydon.

Westbury remained aware of the ebb and flow of the game and were controlling it, especially in the 17th minute when Sean Brereton made a great run with the ball at his feet down the right flank and delivered an excellent cross for the Mattie Mantay to arrive and score his first Westbury goal, 9 days before his 18th birthday.

By 36 minutes Westbury where linking up well, especially Jamie Jordan and George Bendle who had the freedom to play because of the great work by Marc Scammel and Pete Sturman in the middle for Westbury. There was a few minutes where Westbury appeared to take their foot off the gas, they started to get caught holding on to the ball too long and were getting away with a few mistakes until the 39th minute when Mattie Mantay popped up again, this time as a provider, to deliver an inch perfect pass to the well timed run of Sean Brereton, Sean skipped past the keeper just inside the 18 yard box and finished with a composed strike with his left foot into the open goal

The second half went to plan for Westbury, they dug in and apart from the odd Cruyff turn in their own area by James Hounsell they kept it simple and defended well, Corsham hit the bar on the 67th minute but they couldn’t really break a well drilled Westbury down, Their striker Dan Moore led the pressing constantly urging his team forward to press high even though he was still recovering from blisters sustained while disco dancing at V-Festival.

On the final whistle the players went over to show their appreciation to the Ultra’s and thank them for their support.

Westbury Team: Charlie Heydon, James Hounsell (captain), Jordan Lawrence, Pete Sturman,  Matt Jones, Marc Scammell, Sean Brereton, Matthew Mantay, Dan Moore, Jamie Jordan,  George Bendle. Subs: Grant Gunning, Nathan Hallett-Young, Otis Young (used). Karl Freeman, Ben Forester (unused). Goals: Mattie Mantay (17) and Sean Brereton (39). Cautions: None. Star Man: Marc Scammell.

Greg Coulson