Sat 17th Sept. Southern League Division One. Westbury United 1 Tavistock AFC 1.
A hard-fought draw at sunny Meadow Lane where home keeper Mark Bowden saved his side with a point blank save near the end!
Westbury played really well in the opening 20 minutes with Joe Stradling and Conner McKay prominent in attack, both were off target with attempts while Ashton Shanley curled a free kick over the bar.
The closest they came was when Harvey Flippance and Charlie Walton combined with Flippance bringing a fine save out of Josh Oak. Bowden did well to block an effort after Alex Battle’s set piece and he then punched Battle’s resulting corner kick away from danger.
Flippance worked space and fired wide from 25 yards then the home defence, captain Dan Price in particular, worked hard to keep The Lambs at bay when they forced a series of corners.
The visitors began to get on top towards the break and came within a whisker of scoring when Ben Cross unleashed a 35 yarder that crashed against the crossbar and bounced to safety. Then just before half time Dan Keita swivelled and fired wide.
Stradling and McKay put together a few more fine moves after the break, the latter having one attempt blocked then shooting another wide. The 52nd minute was the first time that United hadn’t defended properly and they paid for it as Battle finished confidently to make it 0-1.
Westbury made an attacking substitution, bringing on Aaron Cockerill and pushing Ryan Bole into attack and the change made an immediate difference when those two linked up, played the ball to Shanley and his excellent ball just eluded Flippance inside the box.
The equaliser came on 67 when a quickly taken corner by Shanley caught out Tavistock; Flippance took a touch and delightedly rifled the ball into the roof of the net.
For the next 20 minutes it seemed that United might nick a winner, Walton fired wide from 20 yards then in the next attack he knocked a great ball to Bole whose cross fizzed across the penalty area with no touch on the end of it.
With time running out Bole latched onto a Shanley corner but couldn’t direct his header inside the post. Then with a draw seeming likely Bowden had to come to the rescue.
