Kintbury Rangers who closed the gap to Amesbury at the top of the Premier Division

Premier Division

Another busy week of midweek action in the Premier Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League with four games played, including two games for Melksham Town Reserves.

In terms of the title race, Kintbury Rangers played one of their two games in hand over leaders Amesbury Town, making the short trip to Shrivenham on Tuesday night. Recently they have been involved in some close games, with four of their previous five games before Tuesday night’s encounter being decided by a single goal margin. It was to be another close affair which Kintbury eventually coming out on top despite leading scorer George Armstrong missing a penalty. Matt Horsell put Shrivenham ahead but goals from Armstrong with his 40th of the season and Josh Davis saw Kintbury come from behind to secure a 2-1 victory to move to within five points of the leaders with a game in hand.

George Armstrong who missed a penalty but made up for it with goal number 40 of the season

There was another local derby game on Tuesday night at Sutton Park where Wroughton were the visitors to Blunsdon. Blunsdon had won in midweek at Wroughton at the beginning of September and on Tuesday night Wroughton avenged that defeat with an impressive 4-1 victory. The goals were shared around with one each for Kassa Anderson, Jono Peachey-Score, Aaron Maximen and Max Scholefield.

It was a busy but productive week for Melksham Town Reserves. On Tuesday night they visited the Sustain Stadium home of Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development and returned with all three points thanks to a 1-0 win, Jake Dodge with the all important goal that separated the two sides as he took his tally for the season into double figures.

Melksham Town Reserves were then back in action on Thursday night with Kingsdown the visitors to the Oakfield Stadium. With the teams turning round at half time with the score at 0-0, few would have predicted the goal rush in the second half as the two teams shared six goals and the points. On target for Melksham were Josh Bright (2) and Jaiden Pearce, for Kingsdown Josh Atwell also bagged a brace with Ryan Davis getting the other goal in an entertaining game. After their four-point midweek haul, Melksham Town Reserves moved up to sixth place level on points with Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development but with two games in hand over the side above them in the table on goal difference.

Fountain Trophies Cup Semi Final

The final game of the week involving Premier Division sides was on Wednesday night with the third attempted staging of the semi-final of the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup between Larkhall Athletic Development and Amesbury Town. At the end of 90 minutes the two sides could not be separated with the score 1-1 and the game went into extra-time. However, the game would not be finished as, with 12 minutes to go, just after Larkhall had scored a second goal to go in front, Amesbury had a player sent-off for comments made to the match officials and he then assaulted a Larkhall player as he left the pitch causing the referee to abandon the game. The outcome of the game will now be discussed by the League’s Discipline Committee following the receipt of the match officials report.

Division One

There were three games played in Division One on Tuesday night with all of the top three, Park United, Faringdon Town and Purton, in action. It is very much as you were at the top of the table with all three games resulting in drawn games. Leaders Park United had a tricky looking away trip to Bratton who were also not yet out of the title race. Park took an early lead through Adam Mitchell on ten minutes. Park created plenty of chances to extend their lead but none were taken and were made to rue those missed chances when Max Bishop equalised with a header from a Jack Booth corner 12 minutes from time to give Bratton a share of the spoils. Park continue to head the table and the point for Bratton saw them move up to fourth spot.

Second place Faringdon Town had something of an off night by their own high standards this season, being held to a 1-1 draw by lowly Lambourn Sports. Jamie Stones put visitors Lambourn ahead just after the half hour mark, but Faringdon were back on level terms before half time, Liam Hares getting on the end of a Matt Pill free kick to level matters up. That was to be the end of the night’s scoring as it finished 1-1.

It was also honours even in the game between Kingsdown Development and third placed Purton as the two sides shared four goals and the points. Josh Atwell and Isaac Osazuwa scoring for Kingsdown, with Devan Bryan and Gio Wrona replying for Purton, Wrona continuing his rich vein of form in front of goal.

26 April 2024