Wiltshire Senior League

Corsham Print

Wiltshire Senior League

Wroughton Continue

Impressive Run

Wroughton who secured a hard-fought 2-1 win over Stratton Juniors today

The wet weather caused problems with the opening round of fixtures in the New Year in the Premier Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League with just two out of the eight scheduled fixtures getting played this weekend. Special praise to the groundsmen at both Wroughton and Devizes Town for enabling the games to be played after the heavy rain fall that hit the county. A big thank you also to Wroughton and Stratton Juniors for making contingency arrangements to switch their game from Meadowcroft to the Weir Field which enabled their game to be played. When a morning pitch inspection ruled out the Meadowcroft ground the contingency plans were brought into action and with the two sides not having met previously this season the game was switched to the Weir Field and became Wroughton’s home game. On an understandably heavy pitch the two sides served up a close encounter which was eventually settled ten minutes from time. Visitors Stratton started the brighter of the two sides and went in front after 15 minutes through Oliver Surridge, his long-range effort into the bottom corner of the net giving Wroughton’s new goalkeeper Ed Salsbury no chance on his first appearance for his new club. Stratton thought they had extended their lead after Salsbury failed to hold a shot from the edge of the box and the ball was bundled into the net but a flag from the referee's assistant meant it remained 1-0. Salsbury then denied Stratton striker Corey Cullen with an excellent save after the striker got beyond the Wroughton back line. Wroughton got themselves back on level terms ten minutes into the second half, Jordan Lea who re-signed for the club in midweek, scoring on his first game back at the club, getting on the end of a low cross into the box. It remained a hard-fought battle in the difficult conditions, but the game was decided ten minutes from time when stand-in skipper Luigi Hernandez gave Wroughton all three points as he made it 2-1 to the home side, re-directing a shot from the edge of the box that was going wide into the net. Commenting after the game Wroughton joint-manager Ben Jarrett noted,

“We deserved the win in the end, having just about edged possession, but we were made to work really hard for the points today by Stratton, particularly in the first half.”

“We had seven players missing today but we now have strength in depth that we didn’t have at the start of the season which means we are now able to cope when players are unavailable. I am really pleased with the result today and with the other games being off it means we close in on the teams just above us.”

“There was great co-operation from Stratton to get the game played today and we look forward to playing them again later in the season.”

The win sees Wroughton move level on points with Melksham Town Reserves with both sides having played 20 games, but Melksham remain above them in the table courtesy of their much better goal difference caused by some of the heavy defeats Wroughton suffered at the start of the season The win means Wroughton are now unbeaten in five and their recent impressive run has seen them take 26 points out of a possible 33 from their last 11 league games ahead of a home match against bottom of the table Purton next week. The match today for Stratton means that all sides in the division have now played half of their league fixtures and they remain in 14th place just behind Marlborough Town on goal difference but with six games in hand. They are scheduled to be back in action this coming Friday when they travel to Pewsey Vale.

Your Sport Swindon were at today's game and subscribers can watch the highlights from the game by clicking on the link below or using the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of our website which also contains all the links to games covered this season by Your Sport Swindon.

08-01-2022 Wroughton v Stratton Juniors (WSL Prem)

The other game to be played today was at Devizes Town where Devizes Town Reserves returned to action after a break to enable them to re-group. Their game against Frome Collegians saw them under their third manager of the season, with Duncan Sterling the new man in charge, taking over from Jason Muir who in turn had replaced Tom Bull in the Devizes dugout. Sterling was attempting to arrest a slide that had seen Devizes lose nine straight games and fail to win in their last 17. Unfortunately for Devizes there was to be no happy ending as the visitors secured a 2-1 win. Frome went ahead in the first few minutes of the game, a Max Biddiscombe free kick from out wide being headed in by defender Joe Upshall for his first goal of the season. Frome Collegians added a second five minutes before the break Alex Pippard firing in his second of the season for Frome following his transfer from Trowbridge Town. Devizes pulled one back from the penalty spot through Jack Farion, but Frome held out to return to Somerset with all three points courtesy of a 2-1 win. The win saw Frome move above Odd Down Reserves into 11th spot ahead of a home fixture against another struggling side Marlborough Town next week, whilst Devizes are scheduled to travel to Corsham Town Development next Saturday.

All six of the other scheduled games today were postponed primarily due to waterlogged pitches.