Wed 4th Aug – Uhlsport Hellenic League Roman Glass St George 1 Westbury United 1
THE first league game of the 2021/22 produced a game full of incident, excitement and ultimately a really good away point against an experienced and dangerous Roman Glass side.
The game began with a 5-minute spell of Westbury trying to find their feet, some stray passes and rustiness from over 7 months without competitive football was to be expected. Soon Westbury kicked into gear and started to grow into the game, Ryan Bole’s dynamism from left back and Ben Griffiths dictating the play were a big factor in this.
Driving runs from midfield from the ever-energetic Will Thomson and Joe Stradling were causing all kinds of problems and half chances started to come without having that final pass that would get the opening goal.
The front 3 of Callum Demkiv, Sammy Jordan and Jack Biddiscombe grew with the half and the biggest chance of the half fell to Sammy when an excellent pass from the best player on the pitch, Ryan Bole, presented the striker with a one on one to the left of the goal; Sammy’s strike looked destined for the far corner but for a brilliant save with his foot by the Roman Glass goalkeeper. The first half remained goalless and Westbury went into half time feeling frustrated that they weren’t in front.
The start of the second half couldn’t have gone any worse for Westbury; within 5 minutes Lewis Ellington in the Roman Glass midfield jinked past a tackle and hit a wonder strike into the far top corner past the reach of Mark Bowden.
It took a couple of minutes for Westbury to start hitting their stride again, at which time Will Thomson makes one strong tackle and then lunging for the second, is late and high on the Roman Glass defender, down to 10 men and a goal down with 35 minutes left was not how the game appeared to be going just before half time.
Full credit must go to the Westbury players who continued to be brave on the ball and positive in their play even with a man down. A slight change in shape and a debut appearance for Dan King impacted the game. King was soon getting on on the ball and feeding passes into the strikers runs which were causing problems without getting that clear cut chance Westbury wanted.
Roman Glass looked dangerous on the break with the man advantage but Dan Price and the returning Matt Jones marshalled the back 4 well and limited Roman Glass to long range efforts which caused no problems.
Another sub that gave the team something extra when needed was Francois Allen, the striker who has recently returned from Warminster, gave an injection of energy and pace which the Roman Glass defenders looked like they couldn’t cope with at times.
Half chances and great saves from the keeper continued to come and when Dan King and then Ricky Hulbert from the rebound both hit the crossbar with 10 minutes to go, you thought it might not be Westbury’s night.
In the 88th minute Westbury’s pressing and dominance of the game finally paid off. A ball was slipped down to the excellent Joe Stradling in the left channel his shot hit the post and fell back to the debut man Dan King to rifle in from 6 yards. No less then Westbury deserved.
A very good performance and good away point for Westbury.
United: 1. M.Bowden 2. J.Hutchings 3. R.Bole 4. M.Jones 5. D.Price(c) 6. J.Biddiscombe 7. B.Griffiths 8. W.Thomson 9. S.Jordan 10. J.Stradling 11. C.Demkiv Subs: D.King, F.Allen, R.Hulbert (used) S.Hulbert, S.Gregory (unused). MOM – Ryan Bole
