White 'Orses

Westbury United  1  Melksham Town  1

Southern Football League – First Division South

Admission / Programme – £9 / £1

Let me explain how I operate.

Each season I have a list of clubs to visit, they are basically new clubs, and / or new grounds that have appeared in the various leagues I like to keep on top of. Over recent years that can range from anything from twenty up to forty, and I think this year it was something line twenty eight, but either way, you get what I mean.

What I then do, is have a secondary list, which is basically every club in Step 3 and Step 4 that I have yet to visit, that doesn’t ordinarily drop onto the main list, and to keep that very simple, it’s basically the Southern League and the Isthmian League.

The plan with that secondary list, as a minimum is to get to at least ten new venues a season, but usually it ends up being fifteen or more, largely due to holidays where some of the more outlying venues can be visited. At the start of the season I had something in the region of fifty grounds still to visit, and while using the simple mathematical assumption that fifteen a year would mean it would be polished off in three years give or take, it doesn’t quite work like that.

You have something like fourteen feeder leagues into Step 4, some of whom promote two clubs, so each year, over recent years, as much as you might knock fifteen off, you find a good number being added on again. I won’t say it’s a thankless task, but it’s not that straightforward.

This season I’ve boxed off two of the closest ten to home already in the shape of Beckenham Town and Bracknell Town, while to be fair, the Christmas and New Year period often turns out to be a good time to tick a few off. Last season for example between 18^th December and 3^rd January I managed to knock four off, but this season it wasn’t quite so easy.

I won’t travel far on Boxing Day, and with only Steps 1 and 2 playing on New Years Day, it just left Monday 2^nd as the only day where I could go a good distance to take in a new ground.

I had two options, both in the Southern League, within six miles of each other on the Wiltshire / Somerset border. On the Somerset side we had Frome Town playing at home to Larkhall Athletic, whereas over the border in Wiltshire newcomers to the Southern League, Westbury United had a tasty local derby against Melksham Town, a neighbour from juts eight miles away.

No disrespect to Frome, but the Westbury game was the one that stood out, and with a 1pm kick off, it meant an early start from Derbyshire.

I’ll tell you what, you can’t beat an early start on a Bank Holiday, there was nowt on the roads. Down the A38, round the M42, down the M5 and then along the M4 to the Chippenham turn was one of the easiest journeys I can recall taking in recent years. It was only once on the A350 that it got a bit busier as the route took me round the perimeter of Chippenham, through Melksham and along the edges of Trowbridge. Westbury was arrived at by just after 11am, around three hours from departure, I was first in the car park, thankfully the friendly stewards had already manned the entrance gate!

So what’s the story with Westbury United then? Formed in 1920 they were a Wiltshire League side from many years before joining the semi-professional Western League in 1984, winning the First Division in 2018. They remained in the competition until 2021-22 when they were moved laterally to the Hellenic League, where it turned out to be probably the greatest season in the clubs history. They finished runners up to Bishops Cleeve and thanks to having the requisite point per game average it allowed them to be promoted to Step 4 for the first time in the clubs history.

Nicknamed the White Horse Men after the famous chalk White Horse which sits on Salisbury Plain less than two miles from the town, they play at Meadow Lane which is a ground located to the North of the town centre, pretty close to the railway station.

I really liked the ground, it’s very traditional but homely at the same time. While it has been modernised as all clubs who gain promotion or compelled to do, it doesn’t feel like the kind of place that could ever be spoiled by progress. As you enter, one side of the ground is largely given away for car parking, while a line of trees separates the car parking from the walkway along the side of the pitch. The Meadow Lane end of the ground has a small area of covered terracing in one corner which backs on to the tea bar, while at a ninety degree angle is the clubhouse and dressing rooms. The clubhouse did a roaring trade, as did the temporary can bar that had been installed to ease the pressure on the main building!

A seated stand sits on the half way line and it is some distance from the pitch, and, to be fair, blighted by the fact that when a big crowd is present people stand in front of it so what use it is if you are sat down is debateable. A large part behind the top goal is out of bounds, with access behind the goal limited to a few yards either side.

A big crowd rocked up, 824, so it was busy, with a good number having travelled down the A350. Before the game Westbury were sat in the upper echelons of the table whereas Melksham, who when they joined the Southern League a few years ago looked like they might go straight through to the Premier Division, have not had it that easy this time around.

It was very much a game of two halves. Westbury took the lead thanks to an excellent free kick from Ryan Bole in the 23^rd minute, but then ten minutes later the scores were level when Sam Hendy found the equaliser for the visitors.

The whole complexion of the game changed just before half time when Westbury’s Charlie Walton saw red. Now this is an incident that has sparked much debate on social media, and indeed a video of the incident is there to view. In summary, a Melksham player went to clear the ball inside his own penalty area and Walton travelling at pace stretched to close it down. Still images suggest his eyes were firmly on the ball, but he made contact with the defender and at speed, I’ll admit it didn’t look that great, but having watched it back I thought he genuinely went for the ball and the defenders follow through caught Walton. In my opinion, a yellow would have sufficed, and I think to be fair, the referee perhaps didn’t take enough time to reflect on what he saw, and, perhaps also allowed certain players reactions to the incident to affect his judgement. Not blaming the Melksham players btw, they also reacted to what they saw and of course, you are going to get onto the referee about it, that’s just football isn’t it.  Anyway, it was a divisive incident, some will agree with me, others won’t.

So, that kind of killed the game as a spectacle, the second half was largely a non-event, very little happened in the way of chances and you kind of felt that the longer the half went on, both sides were happy with the point.

So by 3pm they were done, but one thing I must add, the Westbury United tannoy announcer was without doubt the best I have ever witnessed in non-league football. Highly informative, eloquent, confident, but without being wrapped up in his own self-importance (we’ve all heard the ones that think they are rehearsing for a slot on local radio!). I don’t know his name, but great work sir, keep it up, anyone who publicises the different brands of lager in the clubhouse is fine by me!

The journey back wasn’t quite so straightforward, the sat nav decided I was having a tour of the delightful town centre of Bradford On Avon, and I was going to take ride round the edges of Bath, but otherwise I was home for 6.30pm.

Frome is happening in two weeks time if all goes to plan, I do like a trip to the West Country!