Westbury United 1 – 2 Shepton Mallet – Les Phillips Cup Preliminary, Tues. 29th Oct

WESTBURY came within a whisker of forcing this action packed cup tie into extra time as they were unlucky to lose against the side who are 3rd in their league. 

Visiting keeper Adam Garlick made a series of fine saves to secure his teams’ passage into the next round. Manager Matty Bown changed things around formation a squad wise, Lewis Porter was restored to the goalkeeping position, Lee Salter had his most effective match so far at sweeper and Gary Tugwell had a good first appearance of the season including scoring United’s goal.

Shepton started the stronger and Dave Stone hit the crossbar with a bullet header shortly before Porter made two fine saves to deny Ryan Mitchell and Lee Davidson. Westbury came into the game around the 20 minute mark with Garlick saving Wayne Wheeler’s 25 yarder. Garlick then erred as he ran out to meet the advancing Simon Millard but Millard’s pull back to Joe Murray went unrewarded as the striker fired over.

The game went into a quiet phase before half time with the nearest to a goal being Wheeler who volleyed over from Mark Young’s clever corner kick. The 2nd half was an end to end thrill a minute affair! There was a sign of what was to come early on as Wheeler shot another long range attempt wide at one end before George Carey did the same at the other end. Garlick excelled to touch Millard’s 18 yarder round the post and then Salter set up Young who forced the keeper into another good piece of work! The visitors counter attacked and Stone broke through one on one with Porter who dived at the striker’s feet to save.

Another quick turnaround in attacking fortunes led to Mallet taking the lead on 58; superb play by Tugwell led to a Murray cross to set up Wheeler for an overhead effort which was held by Garlick. The keeper sent Ash Wilmott running down the right wing and his cross found Carey who headed into the net! Westbury somehow failed to equalise on 65 when Young sent Millard running into the box and, instead of shooting, he chose to lay the ball off to Wheeler whose fierce strike was blocked on the line! United did get their fully deserved goal a minute later  Young’s deep corner found Tugwell and he fired a stunning drive through a crowded area to make it 1-1! Shepton restored their lead on 71; David Whyte’s great tackle on Lucas Ward wasn’t cleared properly by his team mates and as the ball came back in James Vincent was able to pick his spot to finish past Porter.

How Westbury didn’t force extra time was down to a marvellous double save by Garlick; with many men forward in search of another equaliser, Charlie Walton’s 20 yarder was well parried, and the keeper regained his balance in time to deny Marc Lanfear at point blank range!

*STAR MAN – Lee Salter (Westbury United) . TEAM – Lewis Porter, Ryan Elliott, David Whyte, Lee Salter, Nathan Hallett, Ally Bradley, Gary Tugwell, Simon Millard, Wayne Wheeler, Joe Murray, Mark Young. SUBS – Charlie Walton, Marc Lanfear, Rob Youens (used)