OFF the back of a fine pre-season where Westbury had managed to stay unbeaten, they arrived for the first league game of the season full of confidence.
Oldland Abbotonians were the visitors to Meadow Lane and they are a big powerful team who will be a handful for most teams in this division, but Westbury managed a well deserved 2-0 win.
The first 15 minutes were pretty even, the only real move of any note was an over hit cross from Westbury winger Jamie Jordan. After the 15 minute mark the game started to get tasty; every challenge was full blooded and the game threatened to spill over, but the players kept their heads and continued to play hard but fair. Westbury got drawn away from their own game and started to play direct football which wasn’t working.
On the 35th minute Westbury showed how dangerous they can be when they play with the ball on the ground. Dan Jordan advanced from right back and played a ball into the feet of striker Mark Robinson who drove into the box but his shot across the goal was well saved.
Westbury were well on top and it was a lovely bit of play that led to the first goal. JJ played the ball into Jordan Pinder who was about 25 yards out on the left hand side of the field. Pinder flicked the ball into the left channel to pick up the smart movement of Robinson, who advanced to about 4 yards from the goal line just to the left of the 6 yard box. He squared the ball to Dan Kovacs who was closely marked, but still managed a calm finish to score the first goal of the season. The first half finished 1-0.
Westbury weathered the early storm after the break and got themselves back into the game. JJ again popped up on the right and delivered a good cross to the opposite winger, Leon Greenland, whose smart movement away from the fullback gave him space for the header, but it went tamely wide.
Just before the hour mark Greenland won the ball back on the left hand side and played it inside to Joe Kirkpatrick, who played a first time pass through to the advancing Pinder. The defender was gaining on him so he took the shot early, from about 25 yards with his left, and the ball flew past the diving goalkeeper and nestled into the side netting to make it 2-0. There was a couple of other chances for Westbury, most notably a long ranger by DJ and a shot from Milburn which crashed against the bar. Westbury maintained composure and saw the game out to take the three points.
Star Man: Jordan Pinder.
