Mid Wiltshire Division

On Monday night both the top two in the Mid Wiltshire Division were in action and it is as you were at the top of the table as both Melksham Town and Bradford Town secured a victory. Melksham Town maintained their 100% winning record against Trowbridge Tigers thanks to two goals from leading scorer Charlie Griffin who took his tally for the season to 19.

The same night Bradford Town stayed on Melksham’s heels with an emphatic 10-2 win over Amesbury Junior, a side they had lost to in the first few weeks of the season. Leading scorer Rhys Schell led the way bagging another four goals to take his total for the season to 28, Peter Ayrton scored a hat-trick and there were further goals from Paul Beavers, Marc Canham and Steve Tweddle.

Melksham Town remain four points clear with one game to go whilst Bradford Town have two games to play with three key games now set to decide the outcome of the title race. Next Monday Bradford Town travel to Devizes Town's Nursteed Road Ground knowing they need to come away with a result and ideally a win to maintain interest in the title race and keep the pressure on Melksham. Whilst a draw in this game would not confirm Melksham as champions given Bradford Town’s better goal difference, it would mean Melksham would be champions by avoiding defeat in their final game away to last season’s champions Corsham Town. That game is scheduled to take place on Monday 4^th April and whilst Corsham have not been able to defend their title they will be keen to end the season on a winning note. Melksham also lost on their last visit to the Southbank Ground going down 1-0 on a wet and windy night last May. Were Corsham to take points off Melksham in this game it could give Bradford Town the chance to lift the title, assuming they have got a result against Devizes, by winning their final game against Chippenham Yard Dogs. Whilst Bradford Town have defeated the Yard Dogs in all four previous meetings the two games this season, one in the league and one in the Veterans’ County Cup were close affairs decided by a solitary goal in Bradford Town’s favour.

The other game on Monday saw FC Calne become the second side to complete their fixtures with a 7-2 win over St Andrews to end their season with a perfectly symmetrical record in terms of outcomes with nine wins and nine defeats from their 18 games. With six of those wins coming in their last seven games they will be looking forward to next season with a realistic ambition of challenging for honours. Star of the show on Monday night was Adam O’Keeffe who smashed a double hat-trick to finish on 21 for the season, Stuart Ballinger with the other FC Calne goal, Domonic Shepherd and Stuart Powell with the St Andrews goals.

Devizes Town will go into next week’s game against Bradford Town in good form with just one defeat in their last eleven games, that defeat coming at the hands of Bradford Town in the first meeting between the two sides. On Tuesday night Devizes warmed up for that big game next week with a 3-1 win over last season’s champions Corsham Town thanks to two goals from Nick Oram and one from Jonathan Couch, Simon Gray maintaining his recent good form in front of goal with the Corsham goal.

North Wiltshire Division

There is also an exciting title race in the North Wiltshire Division. After suffering the agony of losing the Veterans’ County Cup final on penalties Royal Wootton Bassett Town returned to Wiltshire League North Division action with an impressive 6-1 victory against Stratton Juniors in their penultimate fixture. Daniel Badman led the way scoring four times with further goals from Kevin Gulliver and Steve Howse securing the win and a league double over their Swindon opponents, Jan Wilmer with the consolation goal for Stratton. The win for Royal Wootton Bassett Town kept alive the team's title hopes, though they are still arguably the outsiders in a three-horse race, but the win maintained the pressure on fellow title contenders Priory Vale and Redhouse. The win saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town move to within a point of leaders Priory Vale with both teams having one game to go, both sides having to still play the other title contender Redhouse. Redhouse sit third two points behind Royal Wootton Bassett Town with three games to play and are best placed to finish top but still have those two big games against the current top two. The first of those games is next week when Redhouse play Priory Vale. A win for Priory Vale would rule out Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s title hopes and could mean that goal difference would be needed to decide the title if Redhouse won their last two games against Royal Wootton Bassett Town and South Cerney Rangers. A draw between Priory Vale and Redhouse would open things up for Royal Wootton Bassett Town and a win in their final game against Redhouse would give them the title, even if Redhouse defeat South Cerney in their other game. The game between Redhouse and Royal Wootton Bassett Town is scheduled to be the penultimate game of the season in the North Wiltshire Division although, as noted above, Priory Vale may already be champions by then. As with the Mid Wiltshire Division it is certainly an exciting end to the season with runners-up spot also to still to play for.

The final game of the week was at the Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night between Cricklade Town and AFC Swindon. Cricklade continued their fine run of form in the second half of the season with their sixth win in their last seven games. Leading scorer Ryan Keech smashed a hat-trick to take his tally for the season to sixteen and further goals from Lee Tatum, Stuart Hemsley and Adam Smith saw Cricklade run out 6-0 winners. If only Cricklade had started the season in the form they have ended it they would no doubt have been challenging for honours, but will be one of the fancied sides to do well next season.

24 March 2022