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Wiltshire Senior League
 Top Three All Win Again
In Premier Division

      Trowbridge Town continued their unbeaten start to the season with their 13th win in 14 games

Trowbridge Town’s impressive start to the season continued on the last Saturday in October as they returned from Calne Town Reserves with all three points to make it 13 wins in 14 games in an unbeaten start to the campaign. They had opened the season with a comfortable 7-1 home win over Calne, but it was a much closer affair in the return game. The division’s leading scorer last season, Scott Baker set them on their way with the opening goal, but Calne restored parity scoring from a corner. Trowbridge Town got themselves back in front with a goal from Stephen Fox.  Fox had played over 60 games for Trowbridge without scoring before today. Trowbridge were then able to double their advantage from the penalty spot, Baker putting the spot kick away for 3-1. Having taken over 60 games to get that first goal, Fox added his second of the game to put Trowbridge 4-1 ahead and when Scott Baler completed his hat-trick for 5-1 the points were secure. However, there was still time for another consolation goal for Calne, again from a corner kick, to make the final score 5-2 to the visitors and league leaders. Calne’s two goals were scored by Matt Ashman and Ben Wootten.

    Scott Baker who hit a hat-trick in Trowbridge Town's 5-s win over Calne Town Reserves

Having slipped up last week at home against Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development, second placed Devizes Town knew they could not afford to drop more points in their pursuit of Trowbridge when they travelled to Bath to take on Odd Down Development. Odd Down’s last two games had been tight affairs, a 1-0 win over Pewsey Vale and a narrow 2-1 defeat against Malmesbury Victoria Development but this afternoon’s encounter against Devizes was never in doubt once Devizes got themselves in front. Two goals from Derek Wheeler plus one each for Kassa Anderson, Gabe Costello and Rhys Talmash secured a 5-0 win for Devizes who remain five points behind Trowbridge with a game in hand. With Trowbridge involved in cup action next week Devizes have the chance to reduce the gap to two points when they travel to Calne Town Reserves. With many of the Devizes side and management team at Bremhill View last season it could be a closer game than current form would suggest next week when they return to their former club.

Devizes' Kassa Anderson and Gabe Costello who were both amongst the goals for Devizes Town

(pictures courtesy of David Giles)

Kintbury Rangers were looking to keep in touch with the two leading sides and had a comfortable afternoon down in South Wiltshire against struggling Salisbury FC Development. Leading 5-0 at the break they added four more goals in the second half to run out 9-0 winners on the day. Harry Bailey led the way with a hat-trick, both Aidan Maycock and Owain Wheeler bagged a brace and there were further goals from Kian Alexander-Baker and Charlie Allsop. The win meant Kintbury remained eight points behind second placed Devizes Town.
After having won seven on the bounce Wroughton have had something of a mini blip losing to Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development and drawing with Pewsey Vale in their previous two games ahead of the visit of Frome Collegians. The two sides had met four times previously with two wins apiece and last season both teams had won their respective home games. That trend continued in the fifth meeting between the sides. Ollie Armstrong fired Wroughton ahead in the first few minutes of the game, but George Holland put Frome back on level terms five minutes later with a long-range effort that took a deflection along the way for 1-1. Wroughton’s leading scorer Jonathan Peachey-Score restored the home side’s lead after being put through one-on-one with the keeper, but Frome were back on level terms again before half time, the equaliser coming from the penalty spot after Jack Newman had been fouled in the box. Max Biddiscombe put the spot kick away for his fifth goal of the season to make it 2-2 at the interval. The second half belonged to Wroughton and Jonathan Peachey-Score, Wroughton’s leading scorer netting twice to complete a hat-trick and take his total for the season to 20 goals and leadership of the division’s goal scoring chart. The 4-2 win saw Wroughton move above Pewsey Vale in the table into fourth spot, three points behind Kintbury Rangers but with a game in hand.

   Another three goals for Wroughton's Jonathan Peachey-Score who is now the Premier Division's leading goal scorer & George Holland who scored the first Frome Collegians goal

Pewsey Vale were supposed to be in Wiltshire Senior Cup action but scheduled opponents Shrewton United were unable to raise a side and the tie was awarded to Pewsey Vale who will now be away to Wroughton next week in the quarter final of the competition.
Blunsdon United have made an impressive start to life at Senior level with just three defeats in their opening 12 fixtures, all of those defeats coming against the current top three sides. Their good start to the season continued when they made the short journey into Swindon to take on Stratton Juniors. When the two sides had met earlier in the season, they had shared six goals and the points but the return game was very much a one sided affair as Blunsdon recorded a fifth win of the season scoring eight unanswered goals. Eliot Wheatley led the way notching a hat-trick with the other five goals being shared around the team, Nick Craft, Lee Toomey, Dave Young, Sean Creeley and Chester Dolisznyj also scoring in the 8-0 win. Blunsdon remained in sixth spot but moved to within three points of Pewsey Vale having played one game more than the side above them.

    A hat-trick from Blunsdon's Eliot Wheatley saw him move into double figures for the season

After losing their first five games of the season last season’s champions Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development have since been on an unbeaten run which coincided with the appointment of Mark Simpkins as their new manager. They travelled to Marlborough Town having gone seven games since they last suffered defeat and having kept five cleansheets in that unbeaten run. The shut-out number is now six after they once again prevented their opponents from scoring and scored two of their own through James Close and Ben Spackman to extend the unbeaten run to eight games. The 2-0 win saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development move into the top half of the table for the first time this season. Marlborough Town meanwhile remained in the bottom three ahead of next Saturday’s big game at the bottom end of the table when bottom of the table Melksham Town visit Elcot Lane. 

    Ben Spackman who scored one of RWBT Dev's goals in their 2-0 win at Marlborough Town

Melksham Town Reserves have had a tough start to the season and sat bottom of the table ahead of today’s visit from Malmesbury Victoria Development. They had also lost one of their leading strikers Cameron Pearce to title chasing Trowbridge Town in midweek, Pearce joining his brother at Trowbridge. Despite the tough start Melksham went into today’s game knowing their league record against Malmesbury was a good one having won 11 of the previous 13 meetings including doing the double over Malmesbury last season, with just one win for today’s opponents in those 13 meetings. It started well for Craig Kent’s side. After Malmesbury had been denied a penalty at one end the home side were awarded one at the other end almost immediately after. Aaron Masson put the spot kick away to make it 1-0 to the home side Melksham. Malmesbury’s Connor Laidlaw was sin-binned as a result of the penalty incident but it remained 1-0 at the break. Melksham extended their lead around about the hour mark, breaking quickly following a Malmesbury free kick the ball made its way to Tom Dowell whose tidy finish made it 2-0 to the home side. However, that two goal advantage did not last long, as Malmesbury pulled one back within a minute of going two behind, Joe Tranter scoring with his fourth of the season. Malmesbury continued to press for an equaliser and were back on level terms shortly after, a Sam Jenner free kick being deflected into the net for an own goal for 2-2. Melksham then had youngster Reuban Rule sent off and Malmesbury sought to take advantage of the extra man in the final 20 minutes but, despite a lot of pressure, were unable to find a winning goal as it finished 2-2 with the points shared. After ten straight defeats Melksham finally ending their losing run with this valuable point ahead of next week’s bottom of the table clash with Marlborough Town, who have been something of a bogey side for Craig Kent in recent seasons.
In Division 1, league leaders Ludgershall Sports were without a game and second placed Kingsdown Lions were in Wiltshire Junior County Cup action, with the re-staging of their First-Round game against Swindon & District League side Shield & Dagger. The first meeting had been controversially abandoned with confusion around the playing of extra-time with the scores level at 1-1. It was once again a tight affair with a solitary goal for Shield & Dagger meaning it is the Swindon & District League side who progress to the next round.
As well as this cup game there were two games in the league with third placed Larkhall Athletic having the chance to move second in the table if they could return from Kintbury Rangers Development with all three points. It remained tight in the opening half, but Kintbury did not help their cause when they had leading scorer Lloyd Ponsford dismissed midway through the first half. They held out to half time but Larkhall stepped up their game after the break and goals from Charlie Saunders, Finn Norris and James Book helped Larkhall to a 3-0 win that saw them move above Kingsdown Lions and to within a point of leaders Ludgershall Sports with three games in hand. The win also means they are unbeaten in their opening six league games.

The other game in the division was at Nursteed Road where Devizes Town Reserves were playing bottom of the table Purton. When the two sides had met at the start of the season in August Devizes had won 5-0 with Tyler Smith amongst the goals. Devizes leading scorer was at it again in the return game scoring twice in a 4-0 win to move onto seven for the campaign and second spot behind Ludgershall’s Luke Holden in the goal scoring chart. Devizes other two goals came courtesy of Harvey Swain and captain Ben Tylee. The win lifted Devizes into fourth spot in the table four points behind Kingsdown Lions having played the same number of games.

Watch out for more insights regarding this weekend’s games, including interviews with some of the managers, on the Your Sport Swindon website later in the week.

     Harvey Swain scoring Devizes Town Reserves ' opening goal against Purton (picture courtesy of Martin Stokes)

League Tables

Leading Scorers

Results & Next Week's Fixtures

29 October 2022