A MINUTE'S silence was held just before kick-off to pay respect to Westbury United vice president Gordon Pearce and Club member Reg Osman who both passed away last week.

This was the third attempt at playing this fixture and Westbury flew out of the blocks but just couldn’t find a way through the Keynsham defence in an attacking opening 15 minutes which saw a number of crosses cleared by the visitors.

Having survived something of an onslaught, Town scored on 17 minutes when Pat Davison’s corner wasn’t cleared and Seb Spiller rifled the ball in with his left foot from the edge of the box.

There followed a long scrappy period until United forced a series of corners on 38 minutes. Again Keynsham’s defence dealt well without allowing a shot towards their goal.

They then broke quickly with a looping ball eluding Mark Young which allowed Ash McDowell a run into the box and he brought a fine save out of Lewis Porter.

Westbury totally dominated the second half after equalising within a minute of the restart.

The goal was somewhat fortunate as the impressive Gary Tugwell swung in a set piece from wide on the left that eluded all the players in the penalty area before nestling in the corner of the net.

United began to find holes in Town’s defence with Clint Hartley forcing Ryan Percy into a smart save before Spiller put his side under even greater pressure on 56 minutes when a bad challenge on Simon Millard saw him receive a straight red card.

The 10 men came under real pressure for most of the rest of the game, but it was Westbury’s inability to convert opportunities that saw them only get a draw.

A lovely move between Millard and Hartley set up Matt Mead whose strike flew over the bar, then Percy did well to save a Tugwell 30 yarder.

Further chances came through Hartley, who chose to shoot after a pacy run rather than pass to any of three fellow attackers and Nathan Hallett with a 20-yard free kick that Percy saved.

Keynsham’s only attack of the half came with five minutes remaining and they could have grabbed a winner, but Kamik Garsta prodded the ball wide after being set up by McDowell.

Westbury: Lewis Porter, Mark Young, Gary Tugwell, Luke Stanley, Paul Beavers, David Whyte, Matt Mead, Bobby Mitchell, Nathan Hallett, Clinton Hartley, Simon Millard.

Subs: Kieron Kiff, Tarick Yachou (used)Ryan Baggs, Kane Scott, Andy Ladd (unused)

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