UNITED face woes as a 4-0 loss sees the team out of the Les Phillips cup and a team full of injured players.
A patched up Westbury side made the trip down to Premier Division side Wellington for the Les Phillips cup tie with Matt Jones (injury), Ricky Hulbert (jolly) and Josh Ferguson (suspension) missing the trip and Joe Kirkpatrick (knee), Dan Jordan (back) and Dan Kovacs (knee) all took a place on the bench to ensure they are fit for the league games ahead. This meant a start in defence for Grant Gunning and a place in the midfield for Sean Bererton, with young hotshot George Bendle starting up front alongside Mark Robinson.
Westbury started brightly and were the better side for the opening exchanges and nobody could have predicted what was going to follow in a terrible 25 minutes before half-time.
The hosts took the lead in the 22nd minute with a header from a set play after Westbury were caught napping. Four minutes later the visitors were left shell shocked as a Wellington player had a free header to double the lead. As the Whitehorsemen tried to gather some composure Wellington added a third as keeper Lewis Porter misjudged a back pass and the Wellington striker was left with a simple tap in. The hosts, who were now rampant, added a fourth goal with another headed goal.
Porter made a couple of excellent saves to keep the score down to four and Westbury were pleased to hear the half time whistle.
Whatever was in the half time cuppa certainly did the job as Westbury came out determined to at least put some respectability back into the score. Matty Mantay and Dan Jordan came on early in the half replacing skipper Dan Price and Leon Greenland who worryingly both picked up injuries. Westbury now had their tails up and were dominating however Porter was forced into a couple of good saves as Wellington counter attacked. Westbury’s best moment came on the hour mark as Jake Hiscocks and Jordan Pinder combined well and Pinder was denied by a great save.
The game continued to ebb and flow and to their credit Westbury put up a much better fight of it in the second half but Wellington were worthy winners and we wish them well in the next round. More worryingly for the Westbury management team will be the long injury list which they now have. Man of match Jordan Pinder.
