Westfields 4 Rocester 0

RICHARD Kear marked a successful return to allpay.park with a goal as Westfields breezed past Rocester 4-0 in a comprehensive Midland Alliance victory.

The Lydney Town forward, called back by Sean Edwards due to an ever growing injury list at Westfields, made an instant impact, scoring the third goal just three minutes after being brought on from the bench.

Following good work from Luke Griffiths, producing a man-of-the-match performance on his debut for the club, down the right flank, Kear controlled the cross before side stepping a defender and slotting the ball past the keeper into the back of the net.

Despite the wet and windy conditions, Westfields made the best possible start to the game with a goal inside 30 seconds, Jamie Insall getting his head to an Alex O’Leary cross to power the ball past a shocked Rocester goalkeeper.

The early goal set the tone for the rest of the half as the home side continued to dominate possession and created a hatful of chances, in fact it was a full 20 minutes before Matt Gwynne in the Westfields goal even had a touch of the ball.

The dominance finally paid off 10 minutes before half-time as Brad Birch extended the lead with an easy tap-in following good combination work with Insall to work the ball past the Rocester defence.

Rocester came out strong at the start of the second half and Westfields had to weather a 15-minute period where the away side started to get the ball down and trouble the defence, Gwynne pulling off two excellent saves to keep his clean sheet intact.

The introduction of Kear off the bench gave the home side the lift they needed to go on and put the game to bed.

And just two minutes after making it 3-0 he was on hand to play in Marcus Giglio who delicately chipped the ball over the onrushing keeper, the score now 4-0.

The final whistle, just minutes later, signalled a thoroughly well-deserved three points for the home team to lift them into 10th in the league as their push towards the top gathers momentum.

For photographs and interviews from this game, read Mike Tansley's Big Match feature in Thursday's Hereford Times.