One win apiece for rivals on memorial afternoon

5:23am Thursday 31st July 2008

Westbury United 3, Warminster Town 2

WESTBURY United won this year's Bert Back Memorial match by beating their local rivals, Warminster Town, 3-2 in an exciting match on a sweltering afternoon at Meadow Lane.

Warminster, having already played two friendly matches, looked sharper early on with Tom Welch firing over and home goalkeeper Nick Evans making fine saves from Mike Reaney and Matt Guy.

Westbury found their stride after the quarter of an hour mark and, with midfielder Matty Smith in excellent form, took a two goal lead. A Smith corner was headed goalwards by Ross Parker but the ball was cleared off the line for another corner. This time the ball was only half cleared and Wayne Wheeler latched onto it before hitting a 25 yard drive that beat former United goalkeeper Jamie McGuckian.

Wheeler scored again soon after when a great ball over the top by Smith saw Wheeler get in behind the visiting defence before hitting a lob over McGuckian and into the net.

Warminster pressed forward late in the half and Evans did well to turn a Welch 20 yarder round his left hand post. Matt Guy took the resulting corner and Jason Guy arrived to finish at the back post to make it 2-1.

It became 2-2 straight after the break when Lee Morgan could only slice an attempted clearance from a Matt Guy cross into his own net.

Morgan almost made immediate amends when his header made McGuckian save, while at the other end Mark Breffit ran onto a loose ball and hit an angled effort over the crossbar.

The winning goal came after 73 minutes when substitutes Pete Ayton and Nick Ridout combined at a set piece, with Ridout hitting a left foot shot into McGuckian's bottom right hand corner.

Warminster almost forced a penalty shoot-out when Shaun Snook was first to the ball in Westbury's 18-yard box but he could only find the side netting.

Westbury United Veterans 1, Warminster Town Veterans 2

A LARGE amount of credit goes to both teams of veterans for playing a well spirited 35 minute each way match in the hottest part of the day in the Mike Taylor memorial match.

Westbury took the lead after 24 minutes when Andy Goodenough found himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Paul Colbourne and finished comfortably.

The score stayed at 1-0 until the 61st minute when Andrew McFerrin equalised with a fine near post finish.

Warminster took the lead within a minute when legendary local goalscorer Gary Lewis received the ball from Paul Newman before scoring with ease to claim the Mike Taylor Trophy.

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