Warminster Town U18s five-game winning start to the season was halted in a local derby at Westbury but they still came away with a point and remain unbeaten in the league.
Warminster showed real resilience to earn a point in a match where Westbury dominated for long spells particularly in the first half before Town grew into the game and finished strongly.
Warminster produced the first chance on four minutes when Freddy Rogers cut in and shot narrowly wide. However, Westbury quickly asserted themselves and on six minutes, Leam Ford made the first of several vital saves. Warminster’s back line relied heavily on Ashton Watkinson’s strong, commanding presence while they did manage to break forward at times with Leo Slatford on the left and Oskar Serej on the opposite flank helping to ease the pressure.
At 15 minutes, Matt Hudd released Dylan Grubb, who hit the side netting and defensively, Toby Jamieson-Yeates read the game effectively, and Charlie Stone contributed two well-timed tackles that broke up promising Westbury attacks.
Despite more superb saves from Leam, Westbury eventually forced home a rebound on the half-hour mark to take a 1–0 lead.
On 51 minutes a free kick from Sam Allman was on target with the ball looping over the defensive wall and forcing a save from the Westbury keeper, while Will Morgan soon provided a pinpoint cross for Dylan Grubb, whose header was cleared.
Another superb save from Leam, and two more stops on 66 minutes kept Warminster within reach. From around the 66th minute, Warminster began to play with more control and confidence, pushing higher up the pitch and in the final 15 minutes, they looked the more threatening side.
Their improvement was rewarded on 68 minutes when Will Morgan floated an excellent aerial ball into the area. Ashton, stepping forward from his centre-back role, burst through the defence and hammered home a powerful equaliser.
Warminster continued to push forward and nearly snatched it in the 87th minute, when Ryan Philps cut inside and curled a shot narrowly wide of the left side of goal.
Despite Westbury controlling long spells, Warminster grew into the match and finished strongly; however the slow start arguably left the team disappointed not to take all three points.
MOTM: Leam Ford
Report: James Stone
