Recap

Westfields 0

Royal Wootton Bassett 1 – Bennett

INCONSISTENT WESTFIELDS GO DOWN AT HOME AGAIN

Westfields suffered their second consecutive Hellenic League defeat at home 1-0 when they were beaten by a hard-working Royal Wootton Bassett Town on Saturday at allpay.park.

Westfields were one of the few clubs that managed to get their game on due to the recent weather conditions and they soon found themselves trailing when Wootton Bassett scored in the first minute when striker Matt Bennett got onto the end of a rebound after Matt Apperley saved his opening shot.

Bennett’s goal proved to be the winner in only the first minute as Westfields toiled against a hard-working visiting defence on an afternoon when little would go right for the Westfields side.

After conceding early on Westfields hit back on a number of occasions and Adam Newbury fired over the bar and then a cracking shot from Matt MacDonald struck the Royal Wootton Bassett post and rebounded safely.

Westfields’ manager Phil Glover had reshuffled the pack once again and left out goal-scorer Josh Hunt and midfield dynamo Harry Pitman, and the Westfields attack were struggling to break down a hard-working visitors’ defence.

After the interval Westfields came more into the game and created several opportunities which once again were not converted when a string of corner kicks taken by Adam Newbury were cleared by the Royal Wootton Bassett defence.

Westfields then suffered a blow in the 75^th minute when striker Bennett got free of the Westfields defence but was brought down outside the penalty area by Westfields keeper Matt Apperley who had performed superbly all afternoon with a number of fine saves to deny Wootton Bassett increasing their lead but he was shown the red card and had to be replaced by substitute goalkeeper Ian Havard at the expense of taking striker Jack Gittoes off the field.

Westfields threw everything forward in a bid to draw level and had a number of opportunities when Adam Newbury and substitute Joel Ohuswa went close from good goal-scoring opportunities.

With time running out Westfields pushed forward with the 10 men but the visitors’ defence held tight to give themselves 3 valuable points and send Westfields crashing to their second consecutive 1-0 home defeat in the Hellenic League Premier Division.  This result leaves Westfields way off the pace in terms of challenging for a promotion place and now they will be looking to bring silverware to Westfields this year in cup competitions.

On Tuesday Westfields host Bromyard Town in the HFA County Senior Challenge Cup and next Saturday Westfields travel to Roman Glass St George at Bristol, kick-off 3pm.