The eagerly awaited game at the top end of the table between leaders Royal Wootton Bassett Town and second placed Kintbury Rangers was, as expected, a close encounter which in the end saw Kintbury secure a 2-1 win to put themselves in the driving seat for the title.  Unfortunately, the final whistle saw a confrontation involving both sides which will no doubt be looked into by the respective County FA’s. Played in front of a large and vocal crowd it was a tense affair from the start. Kintbury had the better of things in the opening half and despite taking the game to the visitors and creating several chances were unable to find the net and the teams turned round with the game still looking for its first goal. The deadlock was broken early in the second half, Kintbury’s Cameron Squires firing in a powerful shot from distance which took a deflection off a Royal Wootton Bassett Town player and looped over goalkeeper Sam Case. Royal Wootton Bassett Town got themselves back on level terms within ten minutes of Kintbury taking the lead, Joe Beavis reacting quickly when the ball fell to him in the box to make it 1-1 with his seventh goal of the campaign. Ten minutes from time Kintbury restored their lead. From a corner the ball was flicked on and found Josh Dopson who had a free header to make it 2-1, Dopson scoring for the second consecutive game for what proved to be the winner as Kintbury moved to within a point of Royal Wootton Bassett Town with a game in hand. The victory puts Kintbury Rangers in the driving seat for the league title, win their final five games and they will be champions, but they still have some tricky looking games to come against Radstock Town and Bishops Cannings, whilst Royal Wootton Bassett Town still have Radstock Town to play twice.

On the subject of Radstock Town, they went into their away game against Kingsdown Lions having won three games on the spin. That run now extends to four games, and five victories in their last six for one of the form teams in the division, as two second half goals from Thomas Hobbs gave Radstock the three points. The win saw Radstock move above Bishops Cannings into fourth place in the table ahead of Monday night’s trip to Kintbury Rangers.

The final game of the week was on Thursday night at Trowbridge Road, Bradford-on-Avon where Bradford Town’s visitors were Calne Town. It started well for Calne Town, Harry Hyres scoring in the very first minute with Reuban Badman doubling the lead with just ten minutes on the clock. Bradford Town responded well to falling two goals behind and quickly got a foothold back in the game when leading scorer Luke Masero cut in from the left and drilled a shot into the top corner of the net. The 20^th minute saw a pivotal moment in the game when home keeper Joe Beaverstock was sent off and Bradford Town were reduced to ten men and forced to utilise a stand-in keeper. Calne quickly took advantage of the extra man with leading scorer Asher Jones adding to his total with Calne’s third. Again Bradford Town responded well to going two goals behind once more, Masero scoring his second of the game and eighth of the season to make it 3-2 to Calne at the break. Second half Calne upped the tempo and took full advantage of the extra players to score three unanswered goals through Jacob Sealy, Jack Smith and the other Jack Smith who recently joined from Bishops Cannings, to make the final score 6-2 to the visitors, their fourth straight win. Calne remain six points behind Kintbury with five games to go and seven points behind Royal Wootton Bassett Town having played one game less than the leaders and are still very much in the hand for potential league honours. For Bradford Town that is now eight games without a win ahead of the visit of league leaders Royal Wootton Bassett Town next week. The scheduled game for Friday night between Bishops Cannings and Warminster Town was postponed by Warminster who were unable to raise a side.

Reminder to Clubs

Clubs who postpone games (whether the home or away side) are reminded that it is their responsibility to follow the procedures set out in Rule 20E(iii) in terms of notifying the League officials, opponents and Match Officials.

League Table

Leading Scorers

Results Grid

Results and Next Week's Fixtures

3 March 2023