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And
so after a busy pre-season of wheeling and dealing, Westbury
Celtic were taught a harsh lesson at the top as a late Chris
Cornes goal ruined their Worcester Prem debut as Heenans ran
out 3-2 winners.
Westbury were already missing Austin, Bowman, Forrester and
McCullough as the strong 20 man squad was falling by the
minute as Ross and Thompson were late withdrawals and the
disappointing no show from Halsall and Carlin saw the home
side down to the bare minimum as new signings Craig Heaney,
Alan Parkinson and the returning James Baker made their
debuts along with youth prodigy's Oli Spink and Adam Ellis.
Following the earlier tragic news both sides served an
impeccable minutes silence before the game for the partner
of Carl Forrester, and as the Reserves sat off Heenans in
the opening exchanges, the visitors fired an early warning
as Dan Polan crashed a shot against the bar. The same player
breaking through moments later only to be denied by keeper
Sean Jenkins who was forced to spend the rest of the game
hobbling around following a collision and was later carried
off.
But the Reserves grew in stature and with Macabe and Austin
patrolling Cornes well it was Celtic who created the best
chances as Austin twice sent Rainbow clean through as he
finished poorly. But they got the breakthrough 5 minutes
before the interval when Martin Macabe fired them in front
with a great finish only for Polan to drive home an
equaliser minutes later as the teams went in level at the
break.
Following a fired up Westbury team talk at the break the
home side came storming out but conceded a penalty on the
hour when Tredwell was harshly adjudged to of held back
Tompkins as Cornes slotted home the resulting penalty. But
Westbury showed great character and bounced back immediately
when Alan Parkinson sprung the offside trap to blaze home an
equaliser. There now seemed only one winner as Heenans just
couldn't cope as Parkinson twice missed one on ones when
clean through, Brogan driving close and Maycroft somehow
heading over from inches away and as Heenans forced a late
corner the large Celtic crowd gathered could sense what was
about to happen as Bullocks header was cleared off the line
straight into the path of Chris Cornes who drove home the
points for Heenans.
A rollercoaster of emotions and a harsh lesson learned for
the Reserves who left the field wondering how they came away
with nothing, but after the days earlier terrible
news things were soon put into perspective.
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