Sat. 3rd August. Toolstation Premier Lge. Buckland Athletic 1 Westbury United 3.
Westbury travelled to Homers Heath without influential twelfth man, Terry Morgan, after an incident in the skittles alley has left him on the treatment table with a hamstring strain. Fingers crossed, he’ll be back somewhere near match fitness by the time we welcome Fareham in the FA Cup.
Westbury prepared themselves for a tough afternoon and the aim was to do better than last season, when Buckland Athletic took all three points with a 1-0 win. Westbury welcomed a couple of new signings to the squad; Ryan Bole, a left back from Wiltshire rivals Devizes and Sam Jordan from Southern League outfit Paulton Rovers.
Westbury started brightly but it was Buckland who had the first dangerous shot on target, a corner to the far post was headed back across goal, a powerful shot was fired on target, thankfully Jason Henley was well placed to clear the ball off the line. A similar move from Buckland on the 23rd minute saw them take the lead through striker Connor Bryant. This goal sparked Westbury into life and on the 28 minute mark, they got themselves back level, Bole delivered a cross from the left that was met by fellow full back Henley, who was arriving on the right hand side of the penalty area. He met the cross with a sweet volley that Griffiths, in the Buckland goal, had no chance of saving.
After a competitive first half, the teams went into the break level with one goal each.
There was no changes at halftime but just after the hour mark, the Kirkpatricks made a few changes. Joe Stradling came on for Jordan Pinder, followed by Dan Kovacs going off to be replaced by Jamie Jordan. Just before the 70 minute mark, Westbury took the lead. A throw-in high on the right hand side from Steve Hulbert was headed on by Sam Jordan, for Ricky Hulbert to finish.
Westbury’s third came after a fantastic run from Stradling, who received the ball inside his own half wide on the right, he drove forward, his pace and trickery meant that the defender didn’t get a chance to get a tackle in, and he passed the ball into the box towards Ricky Hulbert. Ricky’s first touch was to lift the ball over the foot of the centre-back trying to tackle him, he spun and volleyed the ball past the goalkeeper to score his second and Westbury’s third of the afternoon.
Westbury saw the game out to take a well-earned three points back to Wiltshire. Buckland are a strong team, and not many teams will go to Homers Heath and take all the points this season, so this is a great start for Westbury as they get the new season on the way.
Team: Ed Baldy, Jason Henley-1, Ryan Bole, Steve Hulbert(c), Dan Jordan, Matt Jones, Jordan Pinder, Ollie Webb, Ricky Hulbert-2, Dan Kovacs, Sam Jordan. Subs: Joe Stradling, Jamie Jordan, Dan Price (used) Joe Kirkpatrick, Will Stead. Star Man: Ricky Hulbert.
Greg Coulson
