Westbury United 1-2 Ashton & Backwell United – Toolstation First Division, Sat. 29th Oct.

Two early goals were enough to ensure victory for a strong, pacy Backwell side who saw off Westbury’s determined late comeback.

For the most part this was a fairly fought contest with the visitors stronger in midfield, but it turned somewhat fierce in the closing stages.

The visitors front four threatened to run riot early on and Ryan Radford applied a clever finish to Sam Thomas’ through ball opening the scoring in the 2nd minute. Then in the 11th minute, Adey Harvey’s excellent pass set up Jake Flower to double their sides’ lead. They really should have scored again but Cordell Young was wasteful when well placed.

George Bendle tried to get Westbury back into the game with a few fine shots but found Connelly Jarrett in fine form. The closest United came to reducing their deficit before the break came when Dan Price got his head to a Jamie Jordan corner only to see the effort blocked on the line.

Chances came at both ends early in the 2nd half; a defensive clearance by a home defender rebounded off Thomas and went narrowly wide then at the other end Martin Johnson wasted a fine chance to pull a goal back after good play by Bendle.

Price produced a wonderfully timed tackle to deny Radford a shot before Radford wasted a glorious chance by shooting straight at Charlie Heydon just six yards from goal. United went on the attack and the referee waved away shouts for a penalty when Bendle appeared to be fouled by Miles Allen.

Shortly afterwards Jake Stephenson had to go off injured after a heavy 50/50 challenge which left the hosts with 10 men because they had already made three substitutions, but ironically they played better. Firstly a direct Jordan set piece was headed into his own net by Aaron Read to make it 1-2, then with time running out a brilliant cross by Bendle was narrowly missed by Johnson with a diving header.

Star man: George Bendle.