With Trowbridge Town’s game against third placed Pewsey Vale the latest fixture to fall victim of the incessant rain in recent weeks, Devizes Town had the chance to regain top spot with a win away at Shrewton United. They did not disappoint their travelling support but were made to work hard for all three points by a much-improved Shrewton United side. Devizes found themselves 2-0 up with just over half an hour gone, Jamie Walters taking his total for the season to 20 and Rhys Talmash netting his 15^th of the campaign, but Shrewton responded well and reduced the deficit eight minutes before the break, Mike Glasson scoring from a free-kick from distance to make it 2-1. Shrewton’s chances of getting back into the game suffered a blow when they were reduced to ten men on the hour mark with Ben Mulvany dismissed. However, despite the numerical disadvantage, shortly afterwards they had a golden chance to draw level with the award of a penalty. Unfortunately for Shrewton the penalty was missed by Glasson who spurned the chance for his second of the game. Two minutes later it was Devizes Town's turn to be awarded a spot kick, Rhys Talmash becoming the second player to have the chance to double his goal tally from the game, but he saw his spot kick saved by Shrewton keeper Sam Gates and it remained 2-1. That was to be how it finished and, whilst not at their best, Devizes had turned the pressure back on Trowbridge by securing the win and now sit top of the table ahead of their tricky looking midweek trip to Wroughton. Trowbridge will also try again in midweek with Odd Down (Bath) Development set to visit the Daykin Estates Ground on Tuesday night.

Wroughton started the day in fourth spot in the table ahead of the visit of Salisbury FC Development. When the two sides had met on the opening day of the season they had shared eight goals and the points in an entertaining affair and, whilst it was another entertaining encounter, this time it lacked goals as the two sides drew for the second time this season. Salisbury had the better of things in the opening half but Wroughton stepped up their game after the break but neither side was able to find the net and had to settle for a point apiece. The failure to win saw Wroughton drop a place in the table ahead of that midweek date with Devizes.

Moving above Wroughton in the table are Blunsdon. They followed up their narrow 1-0 win in midweek at Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development with another win on a 3G pitch, having switched their home fixture with Frome Collegians to Kingsdown School from Sutton Park to enable their game to go ahead. They were rewarded for their efforts by securing a 3-1 win over Frome in a close game in what was the first ever league encounter between the two sides. Visitors Frome took the lead with their top scorer Jack Newman taking his total for the season to 21, but Blunsdon got themselves back on level terms when a Nick Craft cross was turned into his own net by a Collegians defender after being put under pressure by Eliot Wheatley. Dave Young put Blunsdon ahead for the first time in the game in the latter stages of the match, scoring from a corner. Frome Collegians pushed for an equaliser but were caught on the counter-attack by Blunsdon, Robert Curtis scoring for the second game running to put the game beyond them as it finished 3-1 to Blunsdon.

Frome's Jack Newman & Pete Weston attack the Blunsdon defence

(picture courtesy of Alex White)

More action from Blunsdon v Frome Collegians

(picture courtesy of Alex White)

More of Alex White's excellent photos from the Blunsdon v Frome Collegians game can be viewed by clicking on this LINK.

Kintbury Rangers are just three points behind Blunsdon with a game in hand after they secured their third straight win. Two second half goals from Charlie Allsop and Luke Whelan secured a 2-0 away victory at Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development for the Berkshire based side. Both sides had created chances in the opening half without putting any away. The home side's Josh Bolton had forced a good save out of Kintbury keeper Kyle Clough from a header from a George Lance free kick before, at the other end, Kintbury had a shot which hit the post after a mix up in the home defence. Royal Wootton Bassett Town's Ryan Withers should have done better after fashioning space with some nice skill but fired straight at the keeper. The home side continued to press for the opener and Josh Bolton acrobatically shot over from a Levin Lartey cross but it remained 0-0 at the break. The deadlock was broken when a defence splitting pass found Allsop and his composed low drilled finish put Kintbury ahead. Lance went close to an equaliser for the home side when he curled a free kick just wide of the post and Bolton also went close when he saw a side foot shot tipped wide by Clough in the Kintbury goal. Any hope of the home side getting something out of the game was effectively ended when Kintbury broke out of defence and a cross from the left found Luke Whelan at the far post, who rounded his defender with some neat skill and tapped the ball home for 2-0. For Royal Wootton Basset Town Development that is now the sixth straight defeat and their fifth game without a goal, and they could yet get sucked into the relegation dogfight if they continue this dismal run in their last two games.

Charlie Allsop and Luke Whelan who both scored for the 2nd consecutive game in Kintbury Rangers 2-0 win over RWBT Dev

The final two games on Saturday were important at the bottom end of the table. Melksham Town Reserves have spent most of the season at the very bottom of the table but came into their vital game with the current side bottom of the table, Stratton Juniors, on the back of a run which had seen them win four of their last five games to move out of the relegation positions. Melksham continued that impressive recent won scoring four unanswered goals to improve greatly their chances of avoiding the drop. On target for Melksham were James Gardner with two, Nick Chandler and Luke Ballinger. Melksham now sit 11^th in the table, three points above the drop zone with games against Malmesbury Vics Dev and Odd Down (Bath) Dev, two sides now below them in the table, still to come.   

Those two sides were involved in the final Premier Division game of the weekend. The original fixture had been abandoned three weeks ago with the scores level at 1-1 following an injury to the Malmesbury goalkeeper. The rescheduled game saw Odd Down dominate proceedings securing a much needed 5-2 win that saw them move out of the bottom three. The goals were shared around the team with one goal each for Joe Newman, Andy Keen, Ben Parsons, Cameron New and a ninth of the season from Jack O’Brien. Malmesbury’s goals in reply were both scored by two 17-year-olds, Luc Dangerfield with his second of the season and Louie Gascoyne opening his senior account with the other Malmesbury goal. Malmesbury remain just above the drop zone but have games in hand over all the other sides at the bottom of the table.

Division One

There was a full schedule of games in Division One this weekend and after the dust had settled on the three games Larkhall Athletic Development have two hands on the Division 1 title but can’t yet fully celebrate. Following a 0-0 draw with their rivals for the title Kingsdown Lions, Larkhall can now no longer be overhauled in terms of points and have a 26 goal advantage in terms of goal difference over Kingsdown. It would take a freak set of results in their final three games for them to lose the title but manager James Riccio will no doubt keep his players fully focused until the title is a mathematical certainty. In the final encounter between the two sides who have dominated Division 1 this season it was home side Larkhall who went closest to taking the lead in the first half, having a goal disallowed and then Tom Ellis Ricketts seeing his effort come back off the post. Early in the second half it was Kingsdown’s turn to hit the post and the game remained without a goal. With 15 minutes to go Thierry Swaby missed a one-on-one with the Kingsdown keeper and then, with a minute to go, Larkhall were awarded a penalty. Up stepped leading scorer and captain Charlie Saunders for what could have confirmed the league title but the penalty was missed as it finished 0-0. If Larkhall avoid defeat next week against Pewsey Vale Development they will be confirmed as champions.

Larkhall Athletic Development who have just about secured the Division 1 league title.

The two sides battling out for the third promotion spot, Devizes Town Reserves and Ludgershall Sports set up next week’s encounter between the two sides by both securing another vital three points this weekend. Ludgershall Sports were away at bottom of the table Purton. Their first visit to the Red House had been on the opening day of the season when they had won 10-0 and they secured another big win on their latest visit, improving their goal difference in the process as they ran out 7-0 winners. As has often been the case this season it was Luke Holden who led the way for Ludgershall in games against Purton adding five more to his season tally which now stands at 27, with 17 of those goals coming against Purton. The other scorers for Ludgershall were Ben Wyatt and Thomas-James Finn. This was Purton’s final game of the season and, despite another difficult season, credit to them for becoming the first team, along with Kingsdown, to complete all of their fixtures. Hopefully they will be able to regroup over the summer and come back stronger next season.

Luke Holden whose 5 goals made it 27 for the season and 17 against Purton

Devizes Town Reserves met a much-improved Pewsey Vale Development but ended their four fixtures this season against their near neighbours unbeaten as they added a second win over Pewsey to their earlier one and the two draws between the sides. An 18^th goal of the season from Tyler Smith set Devizes on their way before a second from Liam Moffat secured a 2-0 win for Devizes to keep them three points behind Ludgershall with a game in hand ahead of next week’s big meeting between the two sides.

Tyler Smith celebrates scoring the opener for Devizes Town Reserves in their 2-0 win over Pewsey Vale Development (Picture courtesy of David Giles).

More of David Gile's excellent photos from the Devizes Town Reserves v Pewsey Vale Development game can be viewed on our Facebook Group page by clicking on this LINK.

It is pleasing to report that we have received applications for next season for our Division 1 from nine new teams and at the moment it looks like we will be running our Division 1 with 14 or 15 teams in Season 2023-24 depending on movements with the Step 6 divisions. We have also had inquiries from a couple more teams but have not received applications from them yet, so we may well yet end up with a full complement of 16 teams for next season.

16 April 2023