Sat. 1st Feb. Toolstation League Prem. Div. Cadbury Heath 4 Westbury Utd 1
An excellent first half saw Westbury take all three points away at Cadbury Heath.
It was a fairly even first ten minutes which saw Cadbury Heath smash one off Ed Baldy’s cross bar, the ball fell kindly to the striker who finished well, only to be flagged offside by the assistant.
This seemed to spark Westbury into life, with Jordan Pinder taking on his own spectacular effort from about thirty yards five minutes later, his shot went just wide and didn’t trouble the goalkeeper. Moments later Joe Stradling and Callum Demkiv combined on the left hand side of the penalty area. Stradling’s shot was saved by the keeper but only as far a Demkiv, his shot was stuck into the ground and just wide of the left hand post.
The one-way traffic continued and Demkiv pounced on a ball in behind the Heath defence, his first touch was excellent to tease the keeper towards him and then he lifted the ball over him and into the net to make it 1-0. The skipper, Steve Hulbert, got into the action with a clearance that turned into a shot from his own half, the wind made it tricky, but the keeper kept his eye on it and caught it safely.
On the 25th minute Stradling was causing havoc again, inside the Heath penalty area, as he twisted and turned. It almost looked like the chance had gone as the Heath defenders crowded around him, but he managed to make the half a yard he needed to poke the ball in the bottom right hand corner to double Westbury’s lead. Westbury’s third was a penalty, Demkiv placed the ball on the spot as the keeper stood over him, the mind games didn’t work though as Demkiv scored his second to make it 3-0 to Westbury at half time.
Cadbury Heath had a bit more menace about them in the second half and were looking to take back control when Westbury counter attacked through Demkiv who played the ball into Stradling. He sped into the area on the right hand side and squared the ball to Ryan Bole to tap home from a few yards, a textbook counter attack to make it 4-0.
Cadbury Heath didn’t lay down and accept that they were beaten; at 4-0 down they started to play some good stuff and they got their reward just before full time with a nice flowing move that shifted the Westbury defence out of the way and Baldy couldn’t do anything to keep the close range shot out of the net.
A solid first half and a well-executed counter attack gave Westbury a deserved victory.
Star Man: Callum Demkiv. Line-Up: Ed Baldy, Lee Salter, Jason Henley, Will Thomson, Dan Price, Steve Hulbert©, Ben Griffiths, Jordan Pinder, Joe Stradling, Callum Demkiv, Ryan Bole. Subs: Louis Wilkins, Joe Kirkpatrick (used) Ricky Hulbert, Dan Jordan, Lewis Porter (unused)
