Westbury were back in league action for the first time in nearly one month, away to Shepton Mallet whom they have already had their home league victory against this season.
Ryan Baggs kept his place at right back after an excellent display away to Petersfield, Jordan Pinder moved back into the centre of defence as Dan Jordan is still struggling with a hamstring problem and Lewis Porter was in goal for his first appearance of the season, to replace the injured Ed Baldy.
Westbury started well with the front three of Joe Stradling, Callum Demkiv and Ricky Hulbert causing all kinds of trouble with their pace and endless running but it was Shepton who opened the scoring through their number ten Tyson Pollard. He skipped inside of his marker and fired his shot low and hard past Porter’s left hand.
Westbury were back level on the 25 minute mark, Jamie Jordan delivered an inswinging free kick from the left hand side of the penalty area about 30 yards out, which was met by Ricky Hulbert. His glanced/flicked header was enough to guide the ball on target and into the net.
The teams went in level at 1-1 for the half time break. Shepton won an early free kick just after the interval, the shot was struck well and was on target but Porter pulled off a good save low to his left to keep the scores level.
Five minutes later on the 53 minutes mark, a Porter goal kick was flicked on in the midfield by Jamie Jordan for Ricky Hulbert to hold up. Hulbert played a neat reverse pass into the path of Demkiv, Demkiv drove at the Shepton defence, cut inside and pinging a shot in off the post, which made a beautiful sound.
It only took another five minutes for Westbury to get their third goal, this time from an accurate curling clearance from Baggs into the path of Hulbert who secured Westbury’s third goal and three points. Westbury changed to a 4-4-2 to weather the Shepton storm for the last 15 minutes of the match. Shepton had a couple of good chances that Porter was equal to, but Demkiv and Hulbert were making sure there was always an out ball. Demkiv was like a man possessed and seemed to have Usain Bolt’s pace for a spell in the second half, racing past Shepton defenders to recover loose balls, (apparently he gets it from his dad).
The team dug in and were pleased with a hard-earned three points; not many teams will take three points away from Shepton Mallet this season.
Team: Lewis Porter, Ryan Baggs, Ian Jeffery, Will Stead, Jordan Pinder, Steve Hulbert©, Jamie Jordan, Josh Ferguson, Ricky Hulbert, Callum Demkiv, Joe Stradling. Subs: Francois Allen, Morgan Skipp, Ben Griffiths (used) Dan Jordan, Joe Kirkpatrick (unused). MOTM: Callum Demkiv.
