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Sub-  Thompson

After a tough away game against the two time league winners, the prospect of another tough away fixture to two times runners up of Leigh & Bransford Badgers looked another tough ask of the boys, especially with the absence of our strong central midfielder Tai brown. However, it was the Westbury boys who again started the brightest with tom Evans and Ryan chance putting their pace to good use, making good runs on both wings and it was Chance who was to test the opposition goal first with a low hard shot across goal that was superbly saved by the L&B goalkeeper.

From the resulting goal kick l&b broke fast, but harry Charlwood read the game well and positioned himself to break the play down. The next couple of minutes were very evenly matched with the play going from one goal mouth to the other. But  when L&B played their striker in, he managed to get goal side of the resilient Harris and partridge and with only the keeper to beat, Whitehouse made a great save, but when he went to collect the rebound he unfortunately clipped the striker, to which the referee awarded a penalty. Whitehouse brushed himself down took a walk back to his goal line to face the spot kick. The striker struck the penalty straight down the middle of the goal with plenty of power, but it was Whitehouse who outwitted the striker by standing strong and not being fooled into diving left or right, and made a fine save.

Midway through the 1^st half and Westbury were looking the stronger of the two sides, with the very impressive Charlwood  doing the dirty work to allow the two wide men to express themselves going forward, and with Haydon Clayton putting in hard graft to create space for himself found himself with half a chance and struck the ball cleanly which seemed destined for the bottom corner, only for the keeper to make another fine save.

Sub – Thompson on for Chance

Westbury, although great going forward really had to dig in and defend for periods of the half as L&B showed just why they have managed to do so well in the last two campaigns. They managed  to carve out a chance but again Whitehouse was on top of his game and not only made a fine save but held onto the ball to stop the oncoming striker from having any chance of a follow up, but with partridge and Harris proving to be as stubborn as the day is long prevented any other real danger, a big part of this was possible due to  Harry Charlwood playing the holding role superbly, which took some of the pressure off of the back two.

Thompson soon managed to get into his stride and hook up well with Clayton, exchanging a couple of  one/two’s to beat the L&B defence and when Clayton played in the advancing Thomas Evans, the sprightly winger hit a first time shot only to be saved by the keeper again.

Half time 0-0

Second half

Again most of the early exchanges were in the centre of the park but Charlwood must have had 3 weetabix this morning as nothing was getting past him (either that or his younger sister molly gave him and the rest of the boys a few tips when she warmed up with them at the start of the game.) The next five minutes Westbury took their turn to defend, but the tireless Evans makes tracking back look easy and on two occasions stopped the play coming down the Westbury left side. Along with Thompson , Charlwood and even the lone striker Clayton, the boys put in a real team effort to assist partridge, Harris and Whitehouse to weather the storm and stop from conceding a goal.

Sub Chance on for Evans

With all his hard work, Evans took his turn to have a breather, but with Ryan Chance rested and ready to go he wasted no time in putting his quick feet to good use, with a pacey run down the right, he whipped in a fine cross which was met by the oncoming Clayton who headed just wide of the opposition goal. This was the general state of play for the next 7 minutes with Charlwood breaking the play down and laying it off to the wide men who took it in turns to whip balls in from the wings or with Clayton making intelligent runs allowing the wingers to cut in and take shots on goal, but the boys just couldn’t get the breakthrough they desperately deserved.

Sub Evans on for Charlwood

Harry Charlwood didn’t get the rest he deserved as a bang on the head to Clayton forced  Charlwood to come back on within minutes, but we had to drag Clayton off, the boy is made of strong stuff and was going to play on regardless of the obvious pain he was in.

With the pack a little reshuffled  we still managed to create a further couple of chances but we have come up against 3 very good goalkeepers in our first 3 games and just haven’t had the rub of the green.

This was to become apparent when the goalkeeper  made a fine save from another Ryan chance shot and punted a long ball up to the striker who has to be said brought the ball down very well and caught out the defender and the keeper by hitting his shot early to put the home team 1 goal up with 2 minutes to play. It was obvious the boys were very disappointed but in true Westbury spirit the boys battled on for the remaining two minutes and maybe could have snatched an equaliser when Ewan Thompson hit one just wide (he just asked me to note the chance did fall to his left foot). However the final whistle blew and another game has gone by where the management team , the parents and the players are left scratching their heads at the final result.

m.o.m
Ryan Chance- another fine display from the tricky winger not only looking ever dangerous going forward but putting in a hard shift working back well done Ryan.

Also a special  mention to Harry Charlwood who had his best game in a Westbury shirt, the holding role is one that doesn’t always get the praise and recognition that it deserves, but without you in there today Harry the game would have been a lot harder for the defence and you allowed the wide men to do what they do best, ATTACK.

Management thoughts.
What can I say, a true team performance today boys. The hard work you put in today would normally see any team win that game. You never stopped plugging away, the spirit and real team togetherness really pleased both me and Steve today. If you can take that into the season with you, you won’t go far wrong well done to you all.