Tues. 10th Sept. Toolstation Premier League Brislington 2 Westbury United 0
Westbury travelled to Brislington, looking to get themselves back on track after a loss to Hallen and a draw at Chipping Sodbury.
Rocky Hulbert was making his 100th appearance for the club; it really shows how far Westbury United have come when they can keep players of Ricky’s quality for 100-plus matches. They had a good away following for the midweek tie in Bristol and started brightly.
The first 25 minutes saw chances for both teams, with Westbury having the best chances through Joe Stradling. Ryan Bole had a strong start, charging at the Brislington defence with a fifty yard run but couldn’t find the final pass to match his impressive run. By the 40-minute mark, Brislington were starting to get on top and forced an excellent save from Ed Baldy. They continued to stay on top until half time, it was a break that Westbury needed as they were well under the cosh.
Westbury started the second half brightly but the Brislington back line were there to do one job and they were keeping the ball away from their goal very effectively, by any method, they would kick and head as far as they could at any opportunity, which was causing Westbury to struggle to create any clear cut chances.
Seventy-five minutes in, Brislington opened the scoring through Jayden Nielson; the ball was delivered into the box and half of the Westbury defence naively stopped, expecting to see an offside flag, but it didn’t come, so the ball was cut back for the unmarked Nielson to score. Westbury turned the screw and started to go for it, they hit the bar and had a shot cleared off the line but couldn’t find a way past the determined Brislington defence. Seconds after the goal line clearance, Brislington broke and as Westbury had thrown everyone forward to try to score, Nielson managed to get his second. The game finished 2-0, the Westbury faithful clapped their team off and appreciated the efforts of the team. They came up against a very strong defence and were done on the counter-attack, but they tried right until the end.
Star Man: Ricky Hulbert-100 appearances for the White Horse Men. Team: Baldy, Henley, Bole, D.Jordan, Pinder, Abrahim, J.Jordan, Stradling, R.Hulbert, S.Jordan, Robinson. Subs: Ham, Kovacs (used) Porter, Stead (unused)
