Westbury United hopped across the border into Somerset, to take on Radstock on another damp and windy evening.
Although Radstock have had problems with a waterlogged pitch over the past few months and more recently someone decided to drive a car around it and churn it up, the pitch looked good and the light drizzle gave the grassy surface a bit of zip.
Westbury made a positive start and won a free kick in the second minute due to a handball, about 10 yards from the right hand side of the penalty area. Jamie Jordan stepped up and delivered a teasing cross that somehow went through the crowd loitering on the edge of the 6 yard box at about head height, with no-one able to apply the finishing touch.
Just before the 15-minute mark, Josh Ferguson received the ball just inside the attacking half of the centre circle. With the midfielders backing off, Ferguson travelled towards the heart of the Radstock defence; Ricky Hulbert made an excellent run a few yards ahead of Ferguson, starting central and heading left, causing confusion in the Radstock defence. Everything opened up in front of Ferguson dribbling forward, now about 25 yards from goal so he elected to shoot, his shot however went just over the bar.
Bang on the half-hour mark Westbury won a free kick, about 6 or 7 yards to the left of the penalty area. Jamie Jordan stepped up and smashed his shot goal wards, the ball crashed off the underside of the bar and into the net to make it one-nil to Westbury. That was Jamie’s second direct free kick goal of the week, taking him to 14 (13 league) goals this season. Glen Murley in the Radstock goal prevented his team from going further behind just before the break with some decisive goalkeeping, charging off his line to smother a dangerous attack.
The second half started and the flow of the game began to turn. By the hour mark Radstock were having a good spell and starting to look dangerous. They won a corner which looped over to the far post, and Danny Lock snuck in unmarked but couldn’t head on target. Radstock’s danger men on the flanks were dealt with well by Steve Hulbert on the right of Westbury’s defence. Leon Greenland on the left caused Radstock attacks to go inside, where the excellent Dan Price and Matt Jones were waiting to tackle and clear when required, making sure that Westbury gained their 20th clean sheet of the season.
A good second-half performance from Radstock wasn’t enough to breakdown this stubborn Westbury defence. With three games left, Kirkpatrick’s men moved to the top of the table and now have a break of 11 days until their next game, at Meadow Lane against Bishop Sutton on 28th April.
Star Man: Matt Jones. Team: Lewis Porter, Steve Hulbert, Leon Greenland, Jake Hiscocks, Dan Price©, Matt Jones, Jamie Jordan, Josh Ferguson, Ricky Hulbert, Dan Kovacs, Joe Stradling. Subs: Dan Jordan, Mark Robinson (used) Jordan Pinder, Ryan Baggs, Martin Johnson (unused)
Reports: Greg Coulson
Club Secretary
