Westbury travelled to Bristol on a freezing cold night to take on Roman Glass St George on the Gloucester FA 3G pitch which is clearly an advantage to any team who plays regularly on it.
The Whitehorsemen named an unchanged starting eleven from Saturday’s 5-0 thumping of Hengrove. Roman Glass started brightly and were clearly more comfortable on the artificial surface and were putting pressure on and it was no real surprise when they opened the scoring as the impressive Ryan Radford got in behind and squared for the unmarked Ken Oni to score from close range.
The game continued in the same fashion with Westbury limited to the odd break into the visiting half until a tactical change on 35 minutes brought immediate dividends. Dan Kovacs was asked to drop a bit deeper as he had done so well at Bridgwater recently and he immediately won pack possession , played the ball to Will Stead who threaded a ball through to the advancing Ricky Hulbert, who expertly lobbed Josh Dempsey in the Glass goal to level the scores. This galvanised Westbury who were now enjoying much better possession and defensively looked much better.
Joe Stradling replaced Jake Hiscocks at half time as he tad a nasty gash to his ankle, and Westbury came racing out if the blocks and in a fifteen minute spell they blew the hosts away as first Callum Demkiv smashed home from the edge of the box to give Westbury the lead. Shortly after this Mr reliable , Dan Jordan, was replaced by Jason Henley as a precaution as Jordan had a slight hamstring problem. Five minutes later Wil Stead scored an absolute scorcher, smashing one into the top corner from twenty yards. With their tails up and playing with a renewed energy and pace, it was no surprise when Ricky Hulbert grabbed his second of the evening to seal the win. United saw out the last fifteen minutes and could perhaps have added to the scoreline but this was a real potential banana skin of a game and another big three points as United continue to put pressure on the other top sides.
Man of the match: Dan Kovacs. Line up: Ed Baldy, Jordan Pinder, Steve Hulbert (C), Will Stead, Dan Price, Dan Jordan , Jamie Jordan, Jake Hiscocks , Ricky Hulbert, Dan Kovacs, Callum Demkiv. Subs: Joe Stradling, Jason Henley, George Bendle (used) Joe Kirkpatrick, Lewis Porter (not used).
