Westbury made the long journey to Devon to face table-toppers Willand Rovers, with a depleted squad missing Ben Griffiths and Josh Ferguson with injuries, Joe Stradling and Ian Jeffrey who were both on holiday, Dan Price, Dan Kovacs and Lewis Porter who couldn’t finish work earlier enough and both Joe Kirkpatrick and George Bendle took their places on the bench despite having been ill for a few days.
Jason Henley came in at right back for his full debut and Dan Demkiv started up front. The game got off to the worst possible start for United with Willand scoring after just 15 seconds as Luke Mortimer pounced on hesitancy in the visiting defence to fire the hosts ahead. This spurred the home side on and just minutes later doubled their lead from a controversial penalty where a Willand player went down with no chance of getting to the overran ball, but the referee, who otherwise had an excellent evening, pointed to the spot.
Willand had their tails up and only a couple of excellent saves from Ed Baldy kept Westbury in the game and just as Westbury were getting a foothold in the game, Willand added a third with a free header from a corner. Baldy made another couple of good stops, but the Willand keeper was also kept busy as United forged a few good opportunities. The game went from end to end as the rain came down and, but for both keepers, could have been 6-5 to Willand.
The second half saw a much improved performance from the visitors and on the hour mark Callum Demkiv scored from close range to make the home faithful a bit edgy. United were now on top although the hosts always looked dangerous on the break, but all the visitors’ good work was undone with 15 minutes remaining as the back door was left unlocked and Willand stole in on their right hand side, where Mortimore finished well to kill the game off.
Star Man – Callum Demkiv. Team: Ed Baldy, Jason Henley, Jordan Pinder, Will Stead, Steve Hulbert (C), Dan Jordan, Jamie Jordan, Jake Hiscocks, Ricky Hulbert, Dan Demkiv, Callum Demkiv. Subs: Joe Kirkpatrick, George Bendle, Luke Smith, Brandon Sawyer (unused).
Westbury United
reports: Greg Coulson and Neil Kirkpatrick
