Saturday 17th April 2021, friendly

Wythenshawe Town 0
West 3 (Elliott 2, Heathcote 45+, Grewal 79)

An early Ben Elliott goal set West on the road to victory against Wythenshawe Town in Chris Rowley’s side’s latest behind-closed-doors friendly.

Dontai Gabidon capitalised on a defensive error to set up Elliott inside the first 180 seconds, before Sam Heathcote doubled West’s lead on the stroke of half time and Aarron Grewal applied gloss to an impressive performance in the closing stages.

Gabidon and Elliott had presentable opportunities to increase West’s lead before Heathcote’s intervention, with Town’s clearest sight of goal coming when a free kick rattled the upright with Andrew Jones beaten. But it was the West captain who scored the game’s second goal when he pounced on a loose ball from a corner and emphatically volleyed home in the final act of the half.

The impressive Grewal scored his fourth goal of the post-season period with eleven minutes remaining – substitute Joel Swift’s perseverence created the opportunity, and Grewal seized on the ball to finish neatly underneath the oncoming keeper.

West boss Rowley was full of praise for the way his side responded to last week’s defeat to Nelson. “I can’t think of many shots they had in the game, we pressed from the front and on another day we could have had a couple more goals.”

West: A. Jones, Hancock, Westall (C. Jones 53), Delaney (Gavin 66), Heathcote, Dibble, Gabidon (Matthews 53), Taylor (Ryan 80), Elliott (Swift 66), Davis (Hall 58), Grewal.