IN a dramatic encounter, Westbury came away as 3-2 winners after extra time in the Wiltshire Senior Cup tie against local rivals, Bradford Town.
Bradford made the short trip over to Meadow Lane for the intriguing encounter with Westbury United in the Wiltshire FA Senior Cup. With both teams going well in their respective leagues, it was a tie that both teams felt that they could win. With a crowd of 235, the supporters were also curious to see the clash.
The match started at a frantic pace, with both teams getting the ball down and moving it quickly. The speed of the game was superb, and both teams looked dangerous. Bradford Town’s strikers were causing all sorts of trouble with little one-twos on the edge of the Westbury area, but it was Westbury who stuck first. In a great phase of play that started at Dan Jordan and went through Jake Hiscocks to Dan Kovacs then to Mark Robinson, who held the ball up outside of the Bradford area, then passed it to Steve Hulbert. Hulbert skipped past a challenge, then fired his shot goalward past the diving goalkeeper into the far side netting, to give Westbury the lead.
Two minutes after half time Bradford had the ball in the Westbury net, but it was disallowed due to an offside. A few minutes later Kovacs controlled the ball on the edge of the box, he turned and skipped past a couple of Bradford defenders, he set a pass to Hiscocks, who fired his shot high over the bar.
On the hour mark Leon Greenland had made a dangerous run forward and managed to win Westbury a corner. The corner was delivered by Hiscocks, Jamie Jordan was on the near post to flick the ball on, which redirected the ball to the back post, where a group of players where waiting. In that group of players was Ricky Hulbert who managed to force the ball home and give Westbury a deserved two goal lead. Three minutes later Greenland made another forward run; Jamie Jordan delivered a pass into his path, his shot was on target, but the keeper made a good save.
Westbury were in control and looked like they were going to progress through to the next round until three minutes from time, an uncharacteristic mistake by Lewis Porter gave Bradford a lifeline. Bradford weren’t finished and came again three minutes later, their attacker forced his way through four Westbury defenders to get into the box and finished well to make it 2-2 and take the tie to extra time.
Extra time got under way and both teams were still playing their high tempo games. Six minutes into extra time, Hiscocks delivered a dangerous freekick, Westbury Captain Dan Price had manged to get goal side of his marker, the Bradford defender dragged him down and the referee awarded a penalty. Dan Kovacs stepped up and struck a good penalty which the Bradford keeper was equal to.
Shortly after, Bradford were down to ten men. A late challenge in the middle of the park was enough for the referee to issue a red card.
Westbury gave Bradford a taste of their own medicine in the last minute of extra time. Sean Brereton chased a ball down the Westbury right, which looked like a lost cause, but his fresh legs gave him the advantage and he managed to deliver the ball to George Bendle, who pulled the ball back to Jordan Pinder, who drilled his finish to win the tie for Westbury. Westbury Star Man – Jake Hiscocks.
