WESTBURY United had a miserable return to action last Saturday as their first game in a month ended in a heavy home defeat.

The hosts started very brightly, with a pacy run by Clinton Hartley leading to his cross-shot flying across goal.

The Almonds defended strongly to deny several more attacks having a positive end for Westbury before they raced into a two-goal lead.

On 15 minutes, Ingo Ndlovu’s set-piece from the left wing found Jordan Rogers totally unmarked and he headed into the net.

Then, after regaining the ball straight from the kick off, a fast move was excellently finished off by James Fitzpatrick to make it 2-0.

Hartley volleyed wide after a Kieron Kiff corner was only partly cleared by Ndlovu and Simon McIlroy on the UWE wings began to run the play and, after Ndlovu had touched a McIlroy cross wide of the target, McIlroy played the ball to Fitzpatrick and he showed good quality again in front of goal to extend the lead to 3-0 at the half-hour mark.

United were awarded a mystery penalty kick on 34 minutes, which Hartley stepped up and scored to reduce his side’s arrears.

Butany thoughts of a comeback were thwarted when Almondsbury won a spot-kick of their own five minutes later - McIlroy went on another fine run before being brought down by David Whyte and he dusted himself off to fire home the penalty.

Westbury were surprisingly limp after the break while UWE seemed content to sit on their lead.

The nearest United came to making a comeback was when Matt Mead’s 20-yard free kick clipped a post while Luke Stanley’s header from a Gary Tugwell free-kick was tipped wide by Chris Coles.

Almondsbury's Rogers was sent off in shame after receiving a seconnd yellow card on 82 minutes, when he blatantly dived in an attempt to win another penalty, but even this didn’t really lift Westbury from their slumber as they only managed to force a few half-chances through Mark Young and Hartley, who both shot off target.

Sam Gooding's United side travel to local rivals Corsham Town on Wednesday evening.

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