Corsham Town 5-0 Westbury United – FA Vase 1st Qualifying Rd., Sat. 5th September

A quirk in the fixture list saw these sides meet just 4 days after Corsham’s league victory at Meadow Lane.

Westbury got off to a dream start when debutant Callum Gilbert turned in Dan Moore’s cross inside the opening minute! However that was as good as it got for them because Dan Lardner levelled with a header from Aaron Ledgister’s straight after and went on to score a fine hat-trick.

The flying start continued with further chances at both ends, home keeper Mark Billingsley saving from Moore and visiting stopper Charlie Heydon denying Matt Jenkins.

After a protracted scrappy period of play, Town went ahead a few minutes before half-time when Ben Thomson cruised through and finished well.

Corsham took control after half-time with Jenkins bringing another save out of Heydon and Kieron Gleed firing wide.

United threatened only briefly when Moore had another effort saved by Billingsley, then Mark Young headed Matty Mantay’s deep cross into the side netting.

Lardner came to the fore in fantastic style when he hit an unstoppable 30 yarder on 69 and completed his hattrick 8 minutes later after being set up by Thomson.

Westbury were well beaten by now but continued to pass the ball and Young went close with another header, but it was to no avail as Sam Ockwell’s half volley found the back of the net late on.

TEAM – Charlie Heydon, Tony McElhone, Grant Gunning, Nathan Hallett-Young, Marc Scammell, Dave Macey, Callum Gilbert, Matty Mantay, Dan Moore, Levi Wood, Mark Young. SUBS – Josh Wozniak, Max Whittaker, Owen Adams (used) Jacob Humphrey (unused).