JOINT-MANAGER Neil Kirkpatrick hailed Westbury United resilience as his understrength squad battled their way to a 2-0 win at Cadbury Heath in the Toolstation League Premier last weekend.

Several members of the squad were suffering with illness and Kirkpatrick was forced to call on some less experienced members of his playing staff in Bristol.

Debutant Daniel Demkiv was one of the players to be afflicted by a cold during the week, but the forward recovered enough to grab a goal and an assist on his first showing for the club.

Demkiv opened the scoring for United before setting up Francois Allen to double the away side’s lead, and Kirkpatrick was proud of the way his players battled adversity to take all three points.

“We had a few players who were struggling with illness," said Kirkpatrick, who manages the side alongside his son Joe.

“Daniel (Demkiv) made his debut but had to come off at half-time as he was struggling.

“Will Stead took his place, but he’s been struggling with illness for a few days too.

“He (Demkiv) is a quality player, so if he’s like that when he’s feeling really ill, we look forward to seeing him fully fit.

“The lads that came in did fantastically well and it gives us a bit of a selection headache when everyone is available."

And while Kirkpatrick was pleased to see his side rack up another victory, he wants clean sheets to become more of a priority moving forward.

“Before the game and at half-time, I really stressed the importance of doing things properly and doing it for 90 minutes," said Kirkpatrick.

“That’s not just the back four, it’s in front of them as well, because we are prone to switching off for five or ten minutes in a game.

“Last season we would have got away with that, but this season we will get punished as we’re not going to score three or four goals every week."

Westbury host Clevedon Town on Saturday and Kirkpatrick is aware of the kind of threat they will possess to his team.

“They’re a really good young side. They’re all U23s run by Mickey Bell, the ex-Bristol City guy," said Kirkpatrick.

“They’ve had a couple of excellent recent results where they’ve come from behind.

“They just don’t stop, they keep coming and they score a lot of goals, but we feel that they’re not as strong defensively so as long as we defend properly, we will go after them."

Elsewhere, Will Hailstone scored a last-minute equaliser for Bradford Town as they claimed a 1-1 draw at home to Hallen.

The Bobcats finished the game with nine men as both Charlie Maddison and Jack Witcombe were sent off.

Corsham Town took the bragging rights in their First Division derby at Warminster Town with a 2-0 victory.