United triumph in bank holiday derby!

Mon. 30th Aug. Hellenic Premier League Bradford Town 0 Westbury United 2

THE late summer bank holiday brought together two local rivals in their new league for big derby early in the season.

After having to postpone the last two matches, due to COVID and players having to isolate due to test and trace, Westbury’s team looked strong with Ed Baldy returning from long term injury, plus new recruit Ashton Shanley going straight into the starting line up and another new signing Joey Cunningham on the bench.

Westbury started the stronger with long spells controlling the game, after only six minutes Shanley wrapped his left foot around the ball to curl a shot just wide after a great run from Stradling and excellent play out wide by Sammy Jordan. 

A couple of minutes later Jordan was there again but couldn’t let high enough to head Hutchings cross on target. On 22 minutes Westbury took the lead, Ben Griffiths had tried his luck from distance and his shot was well saved by the Bradford keeper, the ball was half cleared only as far as Ryan Bole who sent it straight back into the penalty for Sammy Jordan to apply a cute little flick to send it into the home team’s net and set off on his trademark somersault celebration. Westbury lead 1-0 at half-time.

The second half got off to a frantic start with Bradfords direct balls being dealt with easily by Price and Jones in the centre of the Westbury defence. Just before 79 minutes Stradling slalomed through several challenges as he powered his way into the penalty area, he raced past the keeper and sent a left footed shot goalwards which was cleared by the covering defender. 

77 minutes in and Westbury had a throw in high on the right hand side, Hutchings threw the ball to Shanley who delivered a right footed cross for Stradling to flick on to Jordan who was flying through the air and scissor kicked it into the net to give Westbury a deserved 2-0 lead. 

Westbury nearly had a third from a mistake in the Bradford midfield was intercepted by Allen, but between Allen and Stradling they could not punish the mistake. Frustration boiled over in the Bradford dugout as the manager Lee Davidson was sent off by the referee. Sammy Jordan headed one against the bar with less than five minutes to play as he was in search of his hat-trick but Westbury couldn’t find a third and the match ended 2-0.

Westbury Starting Lineup: Baldy, Hutchings, Bole, Jones, Price(c), Griffiths, Thomson, Stradling, S.Jordan, Demkiv, Shanley. Subs: Allen, King, Cunningham (used) Timbrell, Porter (unused)

Star Man: Sammy Jordan

• Westbury’s next game is the rearranged game against Shrivenham at Meadow Lane on Tuesday 7th September, 7.45pm kick off, followed by an FA Vase home game against Alresford Town on Saturday 11th September, 3pm kickoff.