Action from Shrivenham's 2-1 win over FC Chippenham  (picture courtesy of Mike Wray)

The Under 18 Division of the Corsham Print Senior League continues to be a wide-open competition with every side on their day seemingly capable of beating anyone. This week’s games started on Monday night at Pewsey with Pewsey Vale entertaining Melksham Town. Whilst Pewsey had lost all three of their games since the re-start after lockdown, all three games had been lost only by a one goal margin. Opponents Melksham meanwhile went into the game on the back of a poor run of form that had seen them lose five games on the bounce after a great start to the season. In a tight affair in the first half the closest either side went to scoring was when Melksham Town hit the Pewsey bar. Both sides created chances but neither side found the net and the teams turned round at the break still looking for the opening goal. The second half continued in a similar vein to the first and it took until ten minutes from time for the deadlock to be finally broken. The goal came when Melksham were awarded a contested penalty which was duly dispatched by Lyndon Banfield for his second goal in consecutive games. Both sides picked up cautions in the closing stages as the game now had an extra edge to it but there was to be no more goals as Melksham hung on to take all three points to end their barren run in what would turn out to be a very good week for the team. The game scheduled for the same night between FC Chippenham and New College was postponed due to pitch availability issues.

On Tuesday night joint league leaders Chippenham Town went clear at the top with an impressive performance in a 7-0 win over Royal Wootton Bassett Town in a game switched to the Gerard Buxton Ground with co-operation between the two clubs. The 3G surface was certainly to the liking of the Chippenham side who played some excellent football all evening. David Moor Bardell put Chippenham ahead and Chippenham did not look back after that the goals kept coming. Harry Lucas made it 2-0 and there were further goals from Dylan Jones, Jac Jones, Dan Warre, Jude McCarthy, with Matt Purcell completing the scoring with the seventh. A convincing victory against a side who’s previous seven games had seen just one goal at the most between the sides in all their matches.

Chippenham Town were back in action on Thursday night against the other winners earlier in the week, Melksham Town. Chippenham looked like they would carry on where they left off on Tuesday night as first half goals from Pele Farnon and their leading scorer in the league, Dylan Jones, put Chippenham 2-0 up at the break. In scoring Farnon became the 20^th different goal scorer for Chippenham in the league in only nine games. However, it was a different story after the break as Melksham turned it around scoring four unanswered goals to take the points with a 4-2 win and achieve back-to-back wins in the week. Substitute Billy Hawkins scored twice with further goals from Olly Clarke and Cameron Pearce, the latter bagging his fourth of the season in what was a great week for Colby Cain’s side. The win saw Melksham consolidate in third place in the table, just two points behind the top two but having played one more game.

The big game of the week was on Thursday night at Barrington Park where second placed Shrivenham met FC Chippenham who had started the week in third place, having lost just once, and who had a number of games in hand over the rest of the division.  Goals from Kai Richardson and Bilal Durdu put Shrivenham in the ascendancy as they led 2-0 at the break. The second half saw Shrivenham twice have the ball in the net again through James Hirst and Taida Tendayi but the efforts were both disallowed and, with Ben Patey scoring for the second consecutive game for FC Chippenham, there were some nervous moments at the end for Shrivenham. However, they held out to pick up three vital points in their quest for the title. The win saw Shrivenham move back level on points with Chippenham Town with both teams having five remaining games, including a meeting between the two on Thursday 6^th May. As a result of Melksham’s two wins this week FC Chippenham slipped to fourth in the table seven points behind the joint leaders but with three games in hand. Your Sport Swindon's Mike Wray was at the game. The highlights can be accessed using the link below or the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of our Website.

The other scheduled game on Thursday between Radstock Town and Pewsey was postponed.

More action from Shrivenham's hard fought 2-1 win over FC Chippenham  (pictures courtesy of Mike Wray)

23 April 2021