Corsham Print
Wiltshire Senior League
 Cricklade Town & Bradford Town
Close In On Division Leaders,
Tigers Win To Move Off Bottom
In the Mid Wiltshire Division, with the league leaders Melksham Town in cup action, the chasing pack had the chance to close the gap at the top of the table and Bradford Town, Westbury United and Corsham Town did just that as all three recorded victories. 

On Monday night Bradford Town moved to within two points of Melksham at the top with a hard fought 2-0 away win at Radstock Town thanks to goals from Nicholas Ross and David Percival. That is now 11 goals so far this season for Ross whilst Percival is just three behind on eight for the campaign. Bradford Town are now ten games unbeaten in all competitions having won their last nine games on the spin, their only dropped points in that ten-game unbeaten run coming in a 0-0 draw with the leaders Melksham who they meet in next week’s big Wiltshire FA County Cup semi-final. 

Monday night also saw Corsham Town close the gap to the league leaders, also winning 2-0 away from home against Chippenham Town. A Steve Tweddle penalty and one from Daniel Beck did the damage as Corsham made it three wins on the bounce. They moved to within four points of Melksham and are two behind Bradford Town. With the top two in that cup action next week, Corsham will be hoping to move above Bradford Town and to within a point of Melksham with a win over Radstock Town this coming Monday, in a game that has been switched to the outside pitch at Melksham Town. 

On the night that Trowbridge Town announced their new chairman their veteran’s side took inspiration from the appointment to climb off the bottom of the table with an impressive 1-0 win over FC Calne. No surprise that the goal came from Clifford Sayki, top scorer in all of the past three seasons for Trowbridge and once again leading the way for the Tigers in the goalscoring stakes. The win was enough to see the Tigers move above Amesbury Junior Badgers.

Amesbury Junior Badgers themselves were in action on Tuesday night and they were up against the other side looking to close the gap at the top, Westbury United. Whilst Westbury ran out comfortable 4-0 winners, Badgers can take consolation from the big improvement over the last meeting between the sides when Westbury had scored eleven unanswered goals. Westbury’s leading scorer Phil Hampson led the way helping himself to a hat-trick against Badgers for the second time this season, Peter Ayton with the other goal for Westbury.
Three games were played in the North Wiltshire Veterans’ Division with two of the three games impacting teams in with a good chance of claiming the league title this season. Before that Tuesday night’s encounter at New College saw Swindon Rovers and Blunsdon involved in a high scoring game which in the end saw Rovers edge it by the odd goal in five. For Swindon Rovers it was two goals for Sean Lewis plus one for Tim Hughes, with Stephen Norriss and Steve Andrews replying for Blunsdon. The win lifted Rovers up to fifth spot level on points with Chiseldon. However, Rovers have played four games more than three of the top four and three more than leaders Redhouse who they trail by ten points. With just six games to play Rovers chances of league honours are slim but they are still involved in the League Cup.

The following night saw Cricklade Town, Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Chisledon all in action looking to close the gap to Redhouse, with the latter two up against each other in their first meeting of the season. It was the two defences who came out on top as the two sides were involved in the first 0-0 draw in the North Wiltshire Division this season and having to settle for a point apiece. 

With two of their main rivals taking points off each other Cricklade Town took full advantage to move above Royal Wootton Bassett Town into second place in the table with a comfortable win over bottom of the table AFC Swindon. Both TJ Bohane and Adam Smith helped themselves to hat-tricks, Matt Richards bagged a brace and a goal from Paul Lawrence rounded off the scoring for Cricklade as they recorded their biggest win of the season so far with a 9-0 success.

One of the two outstanding Second Round League Cup ties was played on Monday night and it saw Mid Wiltshire Division league leaders Melksham Town record a 3-1 win over fellow Mid Wiltshire Division side Devizes Town. Two goals from Kris Beasley and one from Simon Charity for Melksham, Rhys Schell with the solitary Devizes Town goal. Melksham will now meet Royal Wootton Bassett Town in the quarter final at the end of February. This leaves just the tie between Westbury United and Chippenham Town left to complete the Second Round. The updated status of the League Cup is shown below:

League Tables

Leading Scorers

Results and Next Week's Fixtures

2 February 2023
Share by: