Devizes Town 0-2 Westbury Utd – Toolstation Division One, Sat. 18th March

Westbury arrived at Nursteed Road on a good run in the league and were looking to make it five league wins in a row for the first time since April 2009.

They burst out of the changing room and straight away Leon Greenland gave the right back a taste of the medicine he was going to be receiving for the next 90 minutes. He picked the ball up wide left and ran straight at the heart of their defence, drawing a foul from the right back.

The free kick was taken by Joe Kirkpatrick and, even though it was well struck, the keeper made an easy save. A few minutes later Martin Johnson burst through and looked to be one-on-one with the keeper but an eagle-eyed assistant referee judged him to be slightly offside.

After 20 minutes there was a nasty off-the-ball incident between Leon Greenland and Devizes’ Jordan Mathews. Mathews punched/slapped Greenland across the face but neither the referee or his assistant saw the contact.

Greenland received treatment and as soon as he was back on he was off and running at the defence again and again won another free kick; this one was in the wide left position about 15 yards from the by-line. The free kick was easily dealt with by the Devizes defence.

The remainder of the first half was quite scrappy and the wind was making it really difficult to judge any ball high in the air. They went into half-time level at 0-0.

Westbury had to make a change at half time because skipper Matt Jones had felt that his hamstring was a bit tight so did not return for the second half.

Grant Gunning was introduced for his first run out under the new management team. After only 8 minutes of the second half Devizes number 4 Jake Roberts hit the post with a thunderous shot; the ball bounced clear to Greenland who was in a more central position. Roberts came charging back trying to recover and hit Greenland with a hard tackle that the referee judged to be a straight red card offence.

Devizes were down to ten men and Westbury looked to take advantage. On the 16 minute mark a Devizes defender sliced his clearance high in the air and the ball came down at the edge of the box where Kirkpatrick was waiting.

His knee control wasn’t the best and the ball ran away from him straight to the waiting Jamie Jordan, somewhere around the penalty spot. Jordan had plenty of time to shift the ball right and set it to send a fine finish past the keeper into the back of the net.

Three minutes later Westbury’s Jordan was in position on the halfway line; he clipped it forward to the advancing Johnson, Johnson returned the ball to Jordan who had sprinted to catch him up, Jordan zig-zagged into the box and executed another fine finish to make it 2-0.

Westbury continued to apply pressure, Kirkpatrick and Jake Stephenson were seeing a lot of the ball in the centre of midfield and were keeping Westbury ticking. George Bendle held the ball up well on the 25th minute and played the ball into Greenland who over-hit his pass to Jordan.

As the half went on Devizes started to get the ball down and play. Their captain had some neat moves and was joining in the attacks whenever he could from centre back. But the Westbury defence stood strong and managed to keep a clean sheet.

Team: Kierran Ramsey, Jordan Pinder, Ferris Lamrabet, Matt Jones©, Dan Price, Jake Stephenson, Jamie Jordan, Joe Kirkpatrick, George Bendle, Martin Johnson, Leon Greenland. Subs: Grant Gunning, Sean Brereton, Matt Mantay (used) Pete Sturman, Otis Young (unused). Star Man: Joe Kirkpatrick.