Sat. 1st September. FA Vase Cowes Sports FC 3 Westbury Utd 5

Westbury’s FA Vase adventure 2018/19 started with a trip overseas to the Isle of Wight to face Cowes Sports FC.

Their coach left the Westbury Park Engineering ground before 10.30am on Saturday and within 30 minutes they were in trouble, faced with the heavy traffic of the Salisbury ring-road. 

Dave the coach driver stuck to the plan and patiently made his way through the traffic, the rest of the A36 was uneventful and Westbury looked on course to catch the 12.45 Red-Jet, until the Southampton Boat Show traffic brought the bus to a standstill on the M271. 

This was when Dave took matters into his own hands, a detour through the Lordshill area of Southampton got the coach moving again, but didn’t manage to get the lads on the 12.45 Red-Jet ferry as planned. The 13.15 ferry resulted in a 13.45 arrival on the Isle of Wight with a half a mile walk (according to the chairman) to the ground. Apart from the missing wallet and phone, the whole squad had survived the journey. Cowes Sports FC kindly sent a few cars down to ferry people to the ground, saving the ten minute walk. 

The match kicked off a few minutes late due to the referee and his assistants’ tardy arrival. Two minutes after kick off, Cowes Sports took the lead through a cross come shot, from their no.11 James Wykes, that dipped over Ed Baldy into the far net. 

Westbury started to control the game, and every time Joe Stradling got the ball he was causing trouble. On the 18th minute Jamie Jordan (making his 100th appearance for the club) took a quick throw to Ricky Hulbert. Ricky twisted the defender and then lifted the ball past him. All the defender could do was to dip his arm and prevent the ball passing; Ricky appealed and the referee awarded a penalty. Jordan stepped up and fired the ball to the keeper’s right to make it 1-1. 

Five minutes later, the referee had award Cowes a weak free kick out on the right hand side, approximately 10 yards from the throw-in line and 25 yards from the goal line. Phillips curled the ball in left footed and it was met by a fantastic header by Cranwell, which powered past the defence into the net. The game continued even though the referee felt the need to intervene every time opposition players caught eye contact. 29 minutes in, Ian Jeffery showed that he is as effective in attack as he is in defence and delivered a pin-point cross for Callum Demkiv to glance into the far post and draw Westbury level, again. 

Ten minutes before half time Cowes restored their lead when Nash made a quick break down the left and crossed the ball for Mckie to finish. At half time it was 3-2 to Cowes Sports. 

Westbury made a change at half-time, bringing on Josh Ferguson for Francois Allen and switching to a 4-4-2. The referee continued to disrupt the game and was now starting to dish out yellow cards to both teams. 

On the 52nd minute Westbury thought they had drawn level; some excellent work by Ricky Hulbert down the right and a lovely cross/cut-back to Demkiv which Demkiv smashed against the bar meant the score stayed at 3-2. As time ticked on, the Kirkpatricks rolled the dice and threw on Dan Kovacs and Morgan Skipp for Joe Kirkpatrick and Joe Stradling, which resulted in another formation change, this time to a 3-4-3. 

It was the 86th minute when Westbury drew level again, with a fantastic run by Ferguson from the centre circle towards the right hand side of the penalty area. Jordan Pinder made an overlapping run which dragged the defenders out to their left, Ferguson turned and passed the ball into Ricky Hulbert who was a few yards to the right of the penalty spot, and Ricky helped the ball on its way into the net to make it 3-3 and that’s the way it stayed until 90 minutes. Kick-off in the second half was delayed by the referees having to check the rules. 

On the 96th minute Jamie Jordan played a pass forward to Demkiv, who had got goalside of three defenders. He protected the ball and fought them off, then coolly slotted the ball home to give Westbury the lead for the first time in the match. The fifth came after 110 minutes;  Ricky Hulbert raced clear and managed a high lob over the keeper which bounced on the line and into the roof of the net to make the final score 5-3 to Westbury. 

Westbury progress to the next round of the FA Vase which will be an away match at Petersfield on Saturday 15th September. 

The wallet and phone were recovered from the Southampton ticket office, and Dave picked the squad and travelling fans up for a ‘quiet’ drive home.

Team: Ed Baldy, Joe Kirkpatrick, Ian Jeffery, Will Stead, Jordan Pinder, Steve Hulbert, Jamie Jordan, Joe Stradling, Ricky Hulbert, Francois Allen, Callum Dmkiv. Subs: Josh Ferguson, Morgan Skip, Dan Kovacs, Ryan Baggs (used) Lee Fielding (unused)

MOTM: Ricky Hulbert