Malmesbury Vics Dev who secured 5th spot with a 4-1 win at Frome Collegians
The final league game in the Premier Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League took place on Wednesday night when Frome Collegians
entertained Malmesbury Vics Development
with fifth place up for grabs. A win for either side would have seen them take that fifth spot, whilst a draw would have left Calne Town Reserves, who have spent virtually the whole season in the top five, in that fifth place. Kyle Witt opened the scoring for Malmesbury firing in from the penalty spot as he scored for the third consecutive game, but James Hounsell had Frome back on level terms by the break. A storming second half from the visitors saw them score three unanswered goals to climb three places in the table and claim that fifth place. Witt got a second to take his tally for the season to nine and the two joint leading scorers for the Vics this season, Joe Tranter and Harrison Archer, both got on the scoresheet to end the season on 21 goals apiece. The defeat for Frome meant they finished in eighth place just a point behind Calne Town Reserves and Salisbury FC Development.
Final League Table & Results
Top Goal Scorers
Completion of the final game of the season in the Premier Division means the goal scorers’ chart has also now been finalised. Just as the League title race in the end came down to a battle between two challengers it was also the same when it came to this season’s Golden Boot, with Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s Matt Bennett
and Trowbridge Town’s Scott Baker
fighting it out for top spot in the final weeks of the season. With Baker not having appeared for Trowbridge until October, his final goal tally is even more remarkable as he did not play in Trowbridge’s first ten games. Pewsey Vale’s Harry Hoareau
had been a leading contender for much of the season but his mid-season departure to Kidlington in the Southern League meant by the time he returned to Pewsey at the end of the season he had too much ground to make up as he finished the season with 31 league goals. It was a similar story at Salisbury FC Dev where leading striker Devon Arnold
was called up to Salisbury’s first team on the back of his early season goal scoring exploits and he finished the season on 27 Premier Division goals. Both Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s Dale Richards
and Pewsey Vale’s James Guthrie
were also amongst the leading scorers all season finishing with 35 and 33 league goals respectively, with Guthrie also scoring one in the Wiltshire Senior Cup. Corsham Town Development’s Ben Wickens
(25 league goals), the Malmesbury Vics Development duo of Harrison Archer
and Joe Tranter
(21 league goals each) and Trowbridge Town’s Mark Robinson
(20 league goals plus one in the Wiltshire Senior Cup) completed the final top ten scorers.
In the end, at the top of the goal scorers chart, Scott Baker and Matt Bennett both scored an impressive 42 league goals to finish as joint top scorer in terms of league goals. However, Baker also scored one in the Wiltshire Senior Cup, a competition that unfortunately for Bennett is currently not open to any of the Wiltshire based Reserve/ Development sides. Neighbouring Somerset allow Reserve sides into their County Cup competition and with Reserve/ Development sides permitted to play up to Step 6 in the National League System it would seem sensible to allow Reserve / Development teams whose first teams now play in the Wiltshire Premier Shield into the Wiltshire Senior Cup. Hopefully the Wiltshire FA will reconsider this for future seasons as it would also certainly enhance the Senior Cup competition.
Next Season
Over the past couple of months, we have received several enquiries for membership of our Premier Division next season. In fact, far more than we have places for. Our Management Committee discussed this and, on the suggestion of a couple of the interested clubs, are looking at forming a second division (Division 1) next season. We have had initial discussions with the Wiltshire FA, who raised no objection with the formation of a second division having been in our Development Plan for a number of years, and involved the District Leagues in our plans. We have then subsequently gone back to the applicants to ask if they would still be interested, and they all are.
Our intention is that the Division 1 would have the same ground grading standards as our Premier Division
as there will be promotion and relegation between the two. The establishment of another division should help teams coming up from the District Leagues to establish themselves at Senior League. In recent seasons a couple of sides who came up from the District Leagues struggled with adapting to Senior football in the Premier Division and either returned quickly to the District Leagues or folded. The addition of further sides at a Senior Level will also increase the pool of teams who ultimately may wish to progress to Step 6 of the National League System as we do wish to see teams progressing from the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League to the Hellenic League, Wessex and Western Leagues when they are ready to do so.
We currently have 8 (possibly 9 or 10) clubs who want to join. Some of the applicants come from outside of the County and some from other leagues. We would reduce our Premier Division to the FA recommended number of 16 clubs, so there would need to be a couple of relegations to the new Division 1. We have spoken with the two clubs suggested for relegation and, as they are both rebuilding during the summer with new managers and players, they both think that they would benefit from being in a Division 1.
We have not sat down with the Wiltshire FA and the District Leagues to discuss the finer details regarding promotions and relegations, etc, yet but will do so in the coming days. A recurring question we have been asked concerns match officials. We all know that there is still a shortage of match officials. After we have appointed referees to our Premier Division, the District Leagues then appoint theirs. We then appoint assistants from the numbers remaining, although we have a small number who like to run lines for us and not do “middles” anywhere. We do not anticipate this changing dramatically in the near future, but we know that the Wiltshire FA are working hard and running referee courses. Again, the position regarding referee appointments is a detail that we have yet to discuss / agree with the Wiltshire FA and the District Leagues.
Hopefully we will be able to provide more detail in due course once further discussions have taken place with the Wiltshire FA and the District Leagues. All changes will also need to be agreed at the League AGM.