Sat. 23rd Nov. Hallen 2 Westbury 1
Even though it had been another wet Friday and Saturday, Moorhouse Lane was still in great shape, a real credit to the club to consistently produce one of the finest surfaces in the league.
It was a good strong start from Westbury and they had the best of the early exchanges. Bole delivered a cross from deep which was met by the head of Sam Jordan, which produced a very good save from Macfarlane in the Hallen goal.
On the 26 minute mark there was a clash of heads, the referees reacted quickly to stop the game and get the physios on to care for the players, Ricky Hulbert and Scott Thomas. Hulbert received a blob of Vaseline to stop the bleeding, but unfortunately Thomas was worse off taking the impact on the cheek/eye and had to be replaced.
The impact didn’t effect Hulbert though as minutes later his smart movement meant that he was in acres of space when Stradling cut back and delivered from the left, Hulbert headed home to put Westbury ahead. Just before the 40 minute mark, Matt Davies drew Hallen back level with a header from a corner. The other Hulbert pulled up with a hamstring strain, the home crowd were showing no sympathy as the Westbury skipper laid on the turf, unfortunately it was worse than everyone would wish and Steve had to be replaced by Jones. The teams went in level at halftime.
Hallen started the second half the stronger team and Kyle Thomas put them ahead with a 25 yard screamer on 65. They continued to stay on top, forcing a couple of good saves from Baldy in the Westbury goal. Hallen took full advantage of being a goal ahead and took every opportunity to slow the game and even though it was pretty much all Westbury for the last ten minutes, they couldn’t find the equaliser.
Star man-Ricky Hulbert. Team: Ed Baldy, Jordan Pinder, Ryan Bole, Dan Jordan, Steve Hulbert, Will Thompson, Joe Stradling, Jamie Jordan, Ricky Hulbert, Sam Jordan, Callum Demkiv. Subs: Matt Jones, Jason Henley (used) Joe Kirkpatrick, Lewis Porter (unused)
