Wiltshire Senior Cup

Devizes 1 Westside 0

DEVIZES town manager Paul Thompson was so disgusted at his side's first half performance against Wiltshire League opposition Westside that he refused to sit in the dugout for the second half of the match.

Thompson made a quick appearance in the dressing room at half time to berate his players and then retired to the bar.

Even a goal from Dan Sloan in the 77th minute that gave Devizes victory was not enough to get him back pitch side.

As soon as the final whistle blew he left Nursteed Road without speaking to the players.

Assistant manager Steve Hale said he could not comment on Thompson's decision to leave the dug out even though Hale was on the pitch as a replacement goalkeeper for the injured Owen Dunn.

Hale was much more upbeat about the performance. He said: "It was just one of those games. We hit the post and the bar and you wondered when the goal was going to come. It was like our game against Roman St. Glass but today we didn't panic and leave ourselves open too much. We just kept doing what we had to do and it paid off."

You could sense it was going to be one of those days for Devizes when Kris Beasley had his shot cleared off the line after rounding the Westside defence only for Dave Brown to get back and clear off the line 15 minutes in.

Devizes again were unlucky on the 20 minute mark when Scott Griffin flicked a ball round the corner to Lee McMullen for his cross to be smashed against the bar by the Westside defence.

Devizes' poor final ball led to no other chances in the first half and was the cue for Thompson to vacate the dugout, leaving injured captain Darren Robison to manage the side for the second half.

In the second half Devizes again created chances but couldn't find the killer touch. Ten minutes in to the half Jeremy Newton's cross was miss-headed by substitute Dan Sloan and the rebound fell to Josh Digby whose effort was brilliantly saved by Lee Matthews in the Westside goal.

Digby again went close on 63 minutes as his effort struck the wrong side of the post after a strong run from midfield.

Devizes finally found the breakthrough on 77 minutes as Sloan nicked in front of the Westside defence and slotted home confidently from the edge of the box.

Hale added afterwards: " I think our little bit extra came through today but credit to Westside as they didn't just sit back all game and they played two up front against us. We just wanted to get through to the next round anyway possible. I was pleased for Dan to get his goal because he has not been at the races the last couple of games, Mcmullen and Trowbridge did well for us today."