JAMES Goddard thought that his wet-behind-the-ears Westbury United side failed to show anything resembling their best as they were bested by Ashton & Backwell United last weekend.

On January 16, United celebrated a 2-0 triumph over Roman Glass St George but they were unable to repeat the trick on Saturday as in-form Ashton stretched their unbeaten run to 10 matches by condemning their hosts to a 3-0 reverse.

Injuries to captain and centre-back Nathan Hallett-Young and defensive midfielder Jake Stephenson had already left Westbury fighting an uphill battle before full-back James Hounsell was forced off with just five minutes gone, forcing Goddard to shuffle his pack.

The Meadow Lane boss says that his team never really recovered from that upheaval but is in little doubt that the overarching picture for Westbury is a positive one.

“We’ve got a lot of young players in the squad and when you’ve got that and not experienced players, you are going to blow hot and cold,” said Goddard.

“The win last week was a very good one and an important one for us because we showed what we’re capable of but even without the injuries, we were expecting a tough game on Saturday because Ashton have turned their season around and pushed into the top half of the table.

“We were struggling without our captain and defensive midfielder, so that’s two of our starting XI, but when we lost our full-back after five minutes, we had to change the wat we were set up because he was a big part of the way we wanted to approach the game.

“They went 1-0 early on and we did have a chance to make it 1-1 but they broke straight from our attack and made it 2-0 just before half-time, which effectively killed the game.

“We are going to play to our best and win games some weeks and we are going to not be at our best some weeks but I think that we are improving week-by-week and we won’t get into trouble this season.”

During an-action packed opening 20 minutes, Westbury’s Josh Ferguson forced visiting keeper Lewis Coombes into two fine saves and also saw a free-kick crash against the crossbar.

But in between Ferguson’s efforts, Backwell created four openings, including the opening goal of the afternoon, which was excellently dispatched by Conor Biggins.

Late in the half, United had the opportunity to get back on level terms as Francois Allen outpaced his marker and raced clear but he was unable to find the net, with his team punished almost instantly.

Ashton broke quickly and Biggins set up Ross Higginson, who produced great skill and a lovely finish to double the visitors’ lead.

The second half was a tighter affair, with Ashton unable to increase their lead as Goddard’s men held firm but keeper Charlie Heydon was forced to dive bravely at Jake Flower’s feet to prevent him getting his name on the scoresheet.

Ashton were to hit a third goal though, with substitute Sam Skidmore, sent off against Corsham Town seven days earlier, arriving late to finish off a flowing team move.