Sat 2nd Oct. Hellenic League Premier Division Hallen FC 0 Westbury United 6
IT was one of those days that groundsmen at our level would probably prefer to postpone as the rain had been consistent all day and was forecast to get heavier at kick-off, fortunately the pitch at Moorhouse Lane is one of the best at this level of football and it looked in fantastic condition before kick-off and throughout the match.
Westbury welcomed back the brother of top scorer Callum Demkiv, Dan Demkiv dual signed from Larkhall Athletic. They also welcomed back club legend Dan Kovacs, and twitter legend Joey Cunningham. Dan Demkiv was the only player from the new signings that Ricky and Lewis chose to start and he was at it from the first whistle. He received the ball wide right and skinned the Hallen left back but his cross came to nothing.
14 minutes in Dan Demkiv opened the scoring, Ryan Bole won the ball at left back, played it forward to Ben Griffiths, Ben had options ahead of him with both Demkiv brothers joined by Sammy Jordan racing into the space behind the Hallen defence, he chose the pass to Dan Demkiv who had a perfect first touch to set himself to fire the ball past the keeper.
On the 20 minute mark Ashton Shanley played in Dan Demkiv, he turned the Hallen defender inside out and powered a shot on target, Harry Thomas-Barker in the Hallen goal got a strong hand to the shot but his save fell to the feet of Callum Demkiv to finish and make it 2-0.
Westbury should have had a third on the half hour mark, Joe Stradling played in Dan Demkiv who was brought down by Thomson-Barker and a penalty was awarded, but Sammy Jordan’s tame penalty was easily saved by Thomas-Barker. Thomas-Barker made another good save from Callum Demkiv on the 41st minute but his save fell to the feet of Sammy Jordan who forced the ball home and make it 3-0. Just before half-time, a cross from the right was only cleared as far as Callum Demkiv, his powerful shot from 20 yards was saved with another strong hand from Thomas-Barker to keep the score at 3-0 for the half-time break.
Nine minutes into the second half an Ashton Shanley pass was perfect to set up Joe Stradling to shoot from 25 yards, the shot was on target but took a deflection off a defender to wrong foot the keeper and make it 4-0.
Francois Allen replaced Callum Demkiv and he fancied a goal straight away, he received the ball on the edge of the box, rolled his defender but his shot deflected wide.
Westbury’s fifth was a sumptuous little lob over the keeper by Sammy Jordan and the Allen got involved to score the sixth a few minutes before the 90 minute mark. Bole nearly got a seventh, he set off on a run down the left, played a pass to Allen but carried on his run into the Hallen penalty area, the cross came in and he met it with his head but couldn’t guide the ball under the bar.
Hallen nearly got a consolation goal in extra time, their shot beat Bowden in the Westbury goal but Hutchings was well placed on the line to clear that ball and make sure the score finished 6-0 to Westbury.
Star Man-Ashton Shanley . Team: Bowden, Biddiscombe, Bole, Hutchings, S.Hulbert, Griffiths©, Shanley, Stradling, D.Demkiv, C.Demkiv, S.Jordan. Subs: Allen, Kovacs, Cunningham (used) R.Hulbert, Timbrell.
