Westbury attacker Simon Millard had his best match in a United shirt as he scored four times and could easily have had seven in this superb victory!
The whole side played their part as Keynsham were torn apart on an evening they will want to forget for more reasons than the scoreline.
Visiting keeper Matt Dunk sustained a hand injury in the warm up but, despite having another keeper available, their manager decided to play Dunk and that decision backfired spectacularly within two minutes! Millard’s hopeful cross from wide on the left should have been comfortable for Dunk, however he flapped embarrassingly and the ball eluded him and went in!
Westbury continued to apply pressure with Adam Bishop and Mark Young going close from long range then Dunk erred again by spilling Millard’s 20 yarder before diving to claim the ball. Town were good in the build up but found the home defence in good form, although Ryan Ashwood went close with a fine shot.
Dunk’s evening got worse still on 29! Yet again he flapped at the ball and when it was only partially cleared Millard hit a low effort that snuck beneath the keeper to make it 2-0.
Keynsham then made a double substitution, including bringing veteran keeper Paul Weekes on in place on Dunk. Fellow sub Seb Spiller thrashed a 25 yard curler inches wide before from the resulting corner Rich Healey flicked a header into the net to reduce their arrears five minutes before half time.
United went straight on the attack and got their reward on 43 when Marc Scammell’s direct ball found Young who played it onto Millard and he made no mistake to complete his hattrick. The 2nd half got off to a terrible start as Town striker Sam Winfield suffered a serious injury in innocuous circumstances which necessitated a 15 minute delay and, once play restarted, both sides took time to find their feet again.
It took until nearly the 70 minute mark for anything of note to occur and when it did Westbury made certain of the points with a great move; Grant Gunning played in Young and his pace took him clear of the defence where he seemed certain to set Millard up for his 4th goal only for Spiller to slide in and score an own goal!
Keynsham began to push men forward in search of a way back and created a few opportunities for Ashwood, Pat Davison and Tom Morgan which were well dealt with by home debutant keeper Cameron Miller while Luke Lipinski headed against the crossbar. Having kept their three goal advantage Westbury went all out for more goals in the closing stages; Millard got through one on one with Weekes but the keeper saved, then DJ Wheeler was got on the end of a fine move by Bishop and Millard before firing just over.
Millard completed the scoring with his 4th goal on 90 with a superb finish after excellent play by Mead and then somehow failed to find the net again with time running out when he lashed his finish over the bar!
*STAR MAN – Simon Millard. TEAM – Cameron Miller, Gary Tugwell, Dan Hurkett, Marc Scammell, Kevin Shinn, Adam Bishop, Grant Gunning, Matt Mead, Mark Young, Simon Millard, Nathan Hallett. SUBS – Jake Herd, Craig Sheppard, DJ Wheeler (used) Nathan Hallett-Young (unused)
