Full name | Westbury United Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The White Horse Men or Green Army |
Founded | 1920 |
Ground | Meadow Lane, Westbury |
Chairman | Matthew Bright |
Manager | Neil and Joe Kirkpatrick |
League | Western League Division One |
2016–17 | Western League Division One, 12th of 22 |
Westbury United Football Club are a football club based in Westbury, Wiltshire, England. They are currently members of the Western League Division One and play at Meadow Lane.
The club started in 1920 with the amalgamation of two local sides. Westbury Old Comrades FC had just won promotion to the First Division of the Wiltshire County League and to strengthen the side they joined forces with a local junior side, Westbury Great Western Railway XI. Together they became Westbury United Football Club.
They joined the Western League Division One in 1984. They were crowned champions in 1991–92 and were promoted. Westbury played in the Premier Division for ten seasons from 1992, but were relegated back to Division One in 2002 and remain there to this day. New chairman Matthew Bright took over in November 2014 installing Shaun Gardner as 1st team manager. Matthew Bright aims to make the club more family orientated and make Westbury United the center of the local community. Westbury United now have a strong link with the local youth football club Westbury Youth FC and gives a clear pathway for all youth footballers. Shaun Gardner's team finished the 2014/2015 season bottom of the league table, however, avoided relegation. In September 2015, Gardner resigned as first team manager. His assistant manager, James Goddard, was appointed as his successor after 3 games in temporary charge. Westbury finished the 2015/16 season in 20th position.
Season 2016/17 started well by Westbury's standards with them winning half of their games up until the middle of November, they then went on a run of 9 games with only 1 win and 1 draw, morale amongst the players was low and the officers of the club were concerned Westbury would be involved in another relegation battle, the decision was made to relieve James Goddard from his duties at the club after a home defeat by, at that time, another relegation rival Chippenham Park.
Westbury's reserve manager, Marc Lanfear, stepped in to lead the first tem whilst a new manager was sought. He was assisted for those two matches by Nathan Hallett-Young, they won both of their games against two of the top three teams in the division.
Father and son, Neil and Joe Kirkpatrick, were appointment joint managers on 1st February 2017. They suffered defeat n their first 3 league games in charge, but after that they over saw a 5 league game winning streak, the first time Westbury United have managed this since 2009.