Wiltshire Senior League

Corsham Print

Wiltshire Senior League

Pewsey open up six point lead at the top,

RWB Town Dev win (just) to stay in touch

Gio Wrona who scored the only goal of the game in RWB Town Dev's 1-0 win over Corsham Town Res (picture courtesy of Steve Green)

Premier Division

Just three of the scheduled fixtures in the Premier Division went ahead as the wet weather at the back end of the week put paid to four of the scheduled fixtures due to waterlogged pitches.

One of the games to go ahead was at league leaders Pewsey Vale where bottom of the table Ludgershall Sports, buoyed by last weeks fine 2-1 win over Shrewton United, were the visitors. In front of a bumper crowd at this level, which saw 102 in attendance at the Recreation Ground, first half goals from Harry Hoareau and Ollie England put the league leaders in the ascendancy. An own goal extended Pewsey’s lead after the break before leading scorer James Guthrie netted with his 12th goal of the season. Jake Force-Jones completed the scoring for Pewsey with his second goal of the week to make the final score 5-0 to Pewsey Vale to move them six points clear at the top of the table ahead of the Christmas break, also having played one game less than second placed Melksham Town Reserves. Pewsey have lost just once in their opening 14 games and the clean sheet against Ludgershall was their fifth in a row and their eighth in those 14 games, which will no doubt please manager Alistair Tuttle as much as all the goals they have been scoring at the other end. They certainly head into the New Year as title favourites but have a couple of tough games to open 2021 with second placed Melksham Town Reserves set to visit on the 2nd of January with Cricklade Town, the only side to beat Pewsey so far this season, the visitors a week later.

Pewsey Vale who go into the New Year six points clear at the top of the Premier Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League

Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development’s unbeaten start to the season had been ended at the beginning of the month by Corsham Town Reserves and the two sides met again just a fortnight after that first meeting. It was a really tight affair for the whole ninety minutes with the game ultimately being decided by an injury time penalty. Both sides defences were on top in the opening 20 minutes with no real chances being created. The first real chance for the home side Royal Wootton Bassett fell to Manuel Mesas but he just failed to connect with a ball into the box. The visitors first real chance fell to Jason Henley when he cut in from the left but fired his shot straight at home keeper Adam House. Mesas then forced Corsham keeper Joe King into making a save on 36 minutes when his powerful shot was palmed away by King and then cleared to safety by his defence. Mesas went close again when a ball in from the right from Tony Joyce was missed by the Corsham centre-half and fell to Mesas but he fired just over. Six minutes before the break Corsham found themselves temporarily reduced to ten man when Ben Thomson was sent to the dugout for comments made to the assistant referee. There were two further chances before the interval, one for both sides. Firstly, Corsham's Chay Forrester fired just over on 41 minutes after creating space for himself and then at the other end RWBT's Dale Richards set up Gio Wrona but his shot went just wide of the far post to leave it 0-0 at the break.

Corsham thought they had broken the deadlock early in the second half when Ben Wickens fired in from just inside the 18-yard box only to see his strike disallowed by the assistant referee’s flag. Comments made by strike partner Adam Mitchell to the assistant referee saw him become the second Corsham player to spend time in the sin-bin. Despite the numerical disadvantage, with the wind behind them Corsham continued to enjoy the better of the early exchanges in the half and Wickens should have done better after dispossessing Sam Ockwell to get through on goal but he rushed his shot and fired straight at keeper House. Just after the hour mark Corsham went close again as the home side failed to clear their lines and a powerful shot through a melee of players came back off the Bassett cross bar and was cleared to safety. At the other end the home side went close to breaking the deadlock when Bailey Gallagher met a Tony Joyce corner, but his header was cleared off the line by defender Ben Thomson who had also kept the Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s skillful forward quiet for most of the game. Two minutes from time the experienced Adam Mitchell found himself past the home sides’ defence but fired straight at keeper House and then strike partner Jason Henley fired just over in the final minute of normal time. The deciding moment then came in the third minute of added time when a Charlie McCuish shot from close range struck a Corsham defender on the hand and the referee pointed to the spot. Gio Wrona kept his nerve to fire the penalty low past Joe King in the Corsham goal to make it 1-0 on his first appearance of the season for the Development side. There was just about time for the visitors to kick-off before the referee blew the final whistle. Defeat was hard on Corsham who had been the better side for much of the second half, but the home side avenged that earlier defeat to stay in touch with the top two going into the Christmas break.

Action from RWB Town Dev's 1-0 win over Corsham Town Res (picture courtesy of Steve Green)

Trowbridge Town's Joshua Hard in action at Purton earlier in the season who had an eventful day at Odd Down today

Prior to their trip to the Lew Hill Memorial Ground, Trowbridge Town had yet to beat any of the top half of the table sides, but they brought that unwanted record to an end with a hard fought 2-0 win against the young Odd Down Reserves side. Joshua Hard opened the scoring from the penalty spot to give Trowbridge the lead with his fourth of the season before Kieran Hard doubled the lead for the visitors with a superb strike from 20-yards out, his first goal of the campaign. Early in the second half Joshua Hard, the scorer of the Trowbridge opener, saw red leaving his team mates to play virtually the whole of the second half with just ten men. They dug in deep and the defence held out to prevent Odd Down from scoring to ensure the three points and as a result they moved into the top half of the table ahead of the Christmas break, a point behind Odd Down who remained in sixth spot.

The games at Devizes Town Res, Marlborough Town, Shrewton United and Wroughton were all postponed due to waterlogged pitches.

Under 18 Division

Just one of the four scheduled games this week in the Under 18 Division survived the wet weather. The games at Melksham Town, Pewsey Vale and Radstock Town were all postponed due to waterlogged pitches. The one game to go ahead was in Swindon where New College entertained Chippenham Town at Supermarine. Chippenham Town were comfortable 6-1 winners on the night. David Moor-Bardell scored twice for the visitors and there were further goals from Mekhi Duncan, Dylan Jones, Sam Hughes and Harrison Thomas in his first outing of the campaign. The win lifted Chippenham Town into fourth spot just two points behind joint leaders FC Chippenham and Shrivenham, with Chippenham Town having played one more game than FC Chippenham and one less game than Shrivenham.

Best Wishes & Thanks from League Management Committee

Whilst there are some of our Veteran’s teams playing in the Wiltshire Veteran’s Cup next week, that is it for league fixtures in our own divisions in 2020 as we take a short break for Christmas, with the next set of league fixtures in the Premier Division scheduled for January 2nd 2021. The League Management Committee would like to thank all of our clubs, their players and spectators and all our match officials for all their efforts in enabling the games that have been played in this difficult year to take place and we wish everyone a happy, safe Christmas and best wishes for a prosperous and more enjoyable New Year.

Results

Premier Division

Saturday 19th December 2020

Devizes T Res v Frome Collegians - Postponed

Marlborough T v Malmesbury Vics D - Postponed

Odd Down Res 0 Trowbridge Town 2

Pewsey Vale 5 Ludgershall Sports 0

Royal W.B. Town Dev 1 Corsham T Res 0

Shrewton Utd v Melksham T Res - Postponed

Wroughton v Cricklade Town - Postponed

Under 18 Division

Thursday 17th December 2020