Tues. 15th August – Toolstation First Division Corsham 0 Westbury United 0

IT WAS a chilly August evening; the sky was clear as Westbury United arrived at Corsham’s Southbank ground on Tuesday 15th August.

Westbury have started the season well, with two wins and one draw from their first three matches, Corsham on the other hand have had a tough start, losing all three of their opening games.

It was a good start by Westbury and it took just four minutes for Dan Kovacs to deliver a cross on to the head of Jamie Jordan but the Corsham keeper was equal to it.

Just before the 15-minute mark there was a mix-up in the Westbury defence, a cross field pass from captain Dan Price caused confusion between centre back Matt Jones and right back Dan Jordan but Jordan recovered well and kept the ball safe.

The breakthrough could have come after 25 minutes when United had strong claims for a penalty but the referee wasn’t in a position to see the infringement.

There was another JJ header from a Ferguson cross, this time the keeper managed to tip it over the bar. There was a long range shot from Joe Kirkpatrick which the keeper again saved.

It was now Leon Greenland’s turn to see if he could break through. He made a surging run down the left, evading several tackles, and delivered a pass to Ricky Hulbert. With his back to goal he brought the ball down on the edge, but the defenders smothered him and managed to win the ball back. Westbury had controlled the first half and had limited to Corsham no chances of any note.

The second half started in much the same way but Westbury lost Kovacs to the knee injury that he suffered the week before against Malmesbury Victoria. He was replaced by Mark Robinson who got to work straight away harassing and closing down the Corsham defence.

By the hour mark it was all Westbury as Corsham dropped deeper and deeper and spent a lot of the remainder of the match with all eleven players behind the ball. It was defence against attack, with Westbury constantly getting the ball in and around the box. By the 82nd minute the Westbury bench decided to throw caution to the wind, and Jones was replaced by Connor McKay, to add another player to the attack. The formation was more of a 1-4-5 than the 3-4-3 it was supposed to be. Westbury’s deepest player was Price who spent most of the time in the Corsham half.

Tight on the 90 minute mark J.Jordan took a quick throw in high on the righthand to R.Hulbert who break free into the area but his cross was slightly too high and was cleared away. The referee called an end to the match and confirmed that Corsham had won their first point of the season.

It seems the message is out about Westbury and they’re going to have to have a little more luck or a bit more guile and craftiness to break down stubborn defences. It seems from the first few matches teams are setting up to not get beat.

Westbury Team: Lewis Porter, Dan Jordan, Leon Greenland, Steve Hulbert, Dan Price©, Matt Jones, Jamie Jordan, Joe Kirkpatrick, Ricky Hulbert, Dan Kovacs, Josh Ferguson. Subs: Mark Robinson, Liam Milburn, Connor McKay (used) Jordan Pinder (unused).

Reports by Greg Coulson