WESTBURY United have clinched a place in the Southern League for the first time in their 102-year history.
A resounding victory over 7th place Westfields on Easter Monday, coupled with defeat for Boldmere of the Midland League, confirmed United’s promotion.
“The best day in Westbury United’s history” said Andy Bown, who writes the club’s match reports for White Horse News. “This was no more than Ricky Hulbert and Lewis Porter’s squad deserved for a remarkable season which saw just four league defeats (and only one since mid-October), 111 goals scored and 18 clean sheets in all competitions!
“The Southern League here we come!”
United finished second in the league for their highest ever finish and claimed one of the automatic promotion spots from Step 5 to Step 4 in the National League System pyramid.
Club Chairman Greg Coulson said, “I’m absolutely delighted. This is a massive step forward for the club, we’ll be playing in the same league as Melksham, Larkhall, Highworth and Paulton Rovers next season, plus possibly Frome too (they are in the playoffs though, so may get promoted), all big clubs who we have looked up to over the years and we’ve now earned the right to compete with them.
Joint managers Ricky Hulbert and Lewis Porter, spoke to the White Horse News following their promotion.
Lewis said, “This is why we play football; this is why we put the hours of effort in on and off the pitch; all the players can feel a sense of pride knowing that they’ve written themselves into the history books.
“The lads are absolutely buzzing and we even had fans stay late after the game to celebrate with us.
“No glory should go to myself or Ricky; there’s so many elements that go into a non-league club like ours so we can be successful. So, a big thank you to all of those behind the scenes at the club who have helped get us to where we are now.”
Ricky, who is player/manager and the player who netted the first goal in their win against Westfields said, “I’m just over the moon with the result and season in general; we’ve all got our names in the history books now!
“When we took over as managers, my ambition was to get the team to the Southern League. I had played in the team for years, so always knew we had the ability within the squad to do something special – I knew this, but getting the players to understand this was the key to our successful run.
“We didn’t know much about the teams in this league at the start of the season as it was a new league, but we knew that as long as the boys stayed fully focussed and stuck to the job at hand, then we would have a great chance to do well.
“We had a few games called off for various reasons at the start of the season, and this meant we were dragging behind the pack for most of the campaign. We had a mad rush towards the end of the season to fit these games in; it was a big ask, we had to do things the hard way, but we ended up only losing one in our last 28 games.”
Speaking on their chances next season, Lewis said, “We’ve never been at this level as a club, some of the lads have played a few games in the league, but most haven’t. But we have absolute faith in the lads. We all know they can play at that level comfortably as we played Swindon Supermarine in the cup a few weeks ago, and although we narrowly lost, that team is a league above the one we are about to enter, so it shows that we are almost at that level. Hopefully that gives them some confidence as the Southern League will require more effort, more travelling and an increased work load, but we back the boys against anyone.”
Ricky added, “We hope that now that we are in a better league, more local businesses will want to sponsor us and hopefully we have some more supporters at Meadow Lane to cheer us on next season.”
Fans of Westbury United wrote on the club’s Facebook page to offer their congratulations. Some of the comments included, “Congratulations to all involved. Fantastic achievement from a club pulling all in the same direction”, and “An incredible effort. I hope the whole town gets behind Westbury in the Southern Football League next season”. Others said, “Absolutely fantastic result, gives the next generation of young footballers in Westbury something to strive for”, and “Well deserved lads; top work, top lads. Spot on to all at the club, both on the pitch to those behind the bar, it all counts!”
