Due to COVID-19 Westbury United experienced a second season in a row cut short.
After their final match final match of 2020, at home to Shepton Mallet, little did they know that this would be their last game in the Toolstation Western League after the FA had selected to rearrange the football pyramid. This saw teams being promoted on a points per game basis using the results from the previous two seasons that had not been completed, along with lateral movement to try and ensure that the geographical boundaries of leagues do not overlap, with the hope of reducing journey times for Step 5 clubs.
As Westbury sits on the border of three leagues – eastern edge of the Toolstation Western League, North-eastern edge of the Wessex League and the Southern edge of the Uhlsport Hellenic League – staying in the Toolstation Western League would have resulted in several very long trips to the new Cornwall teams that had been promoted from the Peninsulas Leagues, while the Wessex League would involve a couple of expensive trips to the Isle of Wight. Fortunately, due to the lateral movement, United ended up in the Uhlsport Hellenic League, along with other Wiltshire teams Corsham Town and Calne Town (promoted from the Toolstation Western League Division 1) and Bradford Town (lateral movement from the Toolstation Western League Premier Division).
The first competitive action of 2022 came on the 4th of August against the familiar faces of Roman Glass St George, who had also been subject to lateral movement; that game saw a superb performance by Westbury, but they only managed to get one point.
The highlights on the pitch since then have to be the attacking football and the amount of goals being scored. In their first 21 league games Westbury have averaged 2.42 goals per game.
There has also been a massive improvement in local derbies with Westbury currently unbeaten against the other Wiltshire teams in their league beating Calne (twice, 2-1 and 5-0), Corsham (1-0), Bradford (2-0) and Royal Wotton Bassett (3-2), with the big Boxing Day fixture versus Bradford Town having to be postponed due to COVID in the Bradford Town squad.
The Corsham and Bradford away performances are particularly pleasing as they are both strong teams and have had a similar start to life in the Uhlsport Hellenic League as Westbury; to go to their grounds and take three points without conceding any goals is fantastic.
Off the pitch the relationship between Westbury United and Westbury Youth FC has been developed, thanks to Luke, Aaron and Scott, from Westbury Youth for driving this. Westbury Youth teams a regularly mascots to Westbury United home games and there is a new membership scheme that see Westbury Youth players receive a free tray of chips and a drink for Westbury United first team home games if they attend with a paying adult. Having the youth teams around on a match day really gives the place a lift and a more enjoyable feel.
We are fortunate to continue our relationship with the club main sponsor, Alert Systems; we are delighted by their continued support especially during the recent years when we have not had much football.
Other key sponsors are CM Motors from Dilton Marsh, they have sponsored the dug outs and the clubhouse; Skip-it recycling who have taken the main stand sponsorship and Gooding Accounts who now sponsor the ground. We cannot write in words how important these relationships are to enable us to consistently challenge on the pitch.
All our other sponsors are displayed around the ground, or in our programme or on our website, again the support from all our sponsors is amazing, thank you to everyone.
We held a Sporting Dinner in October in the main hall at the Laverton which is a fantastic venue and we will be looking to use it in the future for other similar sized events.
We had a three-course dinner, hosted by Master of Ceremonies Mark Jones with guest speakers Keith Gillespie and Lee Hendrie (ex-Premier League footballers). As the first event of its type that the current committee have hosted, we reached out everywhere for help and advice, we appreciate all the help from everyone involved in the event, especially Mark Jones; his experience ensured that the event ran smoothly and professionally. The feedback on the evening was excellent. Thanks to everyone who attended and to the main event sponsor, Martin and Co.
Westbury United have taken the lack of football as an opportunity to fast track the quality of the playing surface; the maintenance of the pitch is one of the most important jobs at a football club, the pitch is the canvass that the team go out and perform on, it was always our ambition to have one of the best pitches in the league and with the investment over the last 24 months we are finally starting to see the fruits of our labour. The challenge now is to move it on to the next level; self-appointed groundsman Nick Pearce (you have probably heard his soothing tones from out loudspeaker system on a match day) puts hours of time in every week and without Nick giving the pitch the TLC it needs we would not keep the pitch up to the standard we want.
