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Sub -Charlwood

After a two week break the boys seemed more that up for it during the warm up session before the game, however this was not the case when the game got underway as the boys seemed a little slow to get started and spent the first 10 minutes of the match defending and were limited to the occasional attack. Although the effort could not be questioned the lads needed constant reminding about their positions and had to be told to pick up the opposition, which for Steve and I was a little worrying as the lads are normally so good at this. But there were positives to come from all of this as Alfie Whitehouse got to remind us just how good he is, by pulling of some fine saves and to see the midfield trio of Evans, Chance and Thompson working hard to support the back two of partridge and Brown, whilst Clayton was keeping busy up front to create space and always looking dangerous when on the ball.

All this pressure finally took its toll and with a quick break from the Kempsey forward players, Westbury found themselves a little flatfooted and struggled to get back to defend and found our back two having to pick up three Kempsey players. Tai Brown initially broke the attack down but the third Kempsey player picked up the loose ball and slotted it to the left of Whitehouse.

It wasn’t until we went a goal down that the boys got going, but as soon as we did, Kempsey knew they had a game on their hands with both Evans and Thompson working hard down the wings, whilst Chance and Clayton looking to test the keeper at every opportunity. Thompson was proving to be a handful when on the ball as when he received a long ball from brown he passed two Kempsey players and slid in a great ball for the advancing Evans who took the shot early from ten yards and buried it into the bottom corner to level things for the visitors.

Halftime—Kempsey  1-1  Westbury

Sub Charlwood on for Clayton

The manager decided to change things a little and push Thompson up front for Clayton and get Charlwood sitting in the holding role, the boys soon settled and began to play the way they know how and started knocking the ball around and taking the game to Kempsey,

Ryan Chance looked a lot more comfortable back out on the right wing and was putting his pace and trickery to good use by beating his marker on many occasions and whipping in some fine crosses, but the kempsey defence were pretty solid and managed to clear any danger. Tai brown and Dominic partridge were still kept busy through the early parts of the first half and had to be on their toes on many occasions but with Alfie Whitehouse in fine form whatever did get past the duo, the keeper was there to clean up.

Thomas Evans was his normal busy self and thinking fast, he took a quick throw in to Ewan Thompson’s feet, who turned on the edge of the box and ran at the Kempsey defence, and after dribbling around three players slotted the ball in the bottom corner of the Kempsey goal.

Sub Clayton on for Evans

Westbury’s confidence was high and for 5 minutes dominated the game and played some very good football, and when Charlwood played in a great ball to Thompson he found himself clean through and could have gone two goals clear but the keeper made a very good save then cleared the ball long to the Kempsey forward who really did finish well to level the game for the visitors. Westbury didn’t let their heads drop and kept plugging away and could have taken the lead again only for the crossbar to deny Clayton from his 5^th goal of the season.

The remaining five minutes of the game, Westbury  did have their chances but spent the majority of that time defending many Kempsey corners, and after defending so well we were undone by a very good header that would have beaten Petr Cech it was hit that hard to win the game for the home team.

M.O.M   Alfie Whitehouse and Ewan Thompson--- Alfie pulled of many great saves throughout the game to keep the score respectable whilst Ewan worked very hard during the game and scored a very good solo goal. Well done to you both

Management Thoughts....... Kempsey had a very good game plan on the small pitch and the boys found it hard at the start to get a hold of the game, we found the first ten minutes very frustrating as you lads seemed to find the basic things like getting goal side and tracking your players very difficult, however you all showed great spirit and worked very hard throughout the game to get your goals. Kempsey played very well and have obviously worked on making a short pitch work for them, but with a little hard work in training and a bit of good luck, will start picking up more points that the football you play deserves.