Action from the Bank Holiday Monday game between Trowbridge Town & Kingsdown

(picture courtesy of Alwyn Bodman)

Premier Division

With the league title and the bottom positions already decided in the Premier Division after last Saturday’s round of fixtures there were just five games left to play with Kingsdown who involved in three of their games. Credit to Adie Wilkinson for fielding a competitive side in the two games played on Bank Holiday Monday and on Wednesday night. Kingsdown’s fixture issues were not really of their own making, whilst they have issues with their pitch the three games to end their season were all caused by their opponents calling off.

After giving champions Amesbury Town a tough end to the season on Saturday Kingsdown travelled to Trowbridge Town on Bank Holiday Monday without regular keeper Dan Lawrence and were forced into playing veteran Lee Curtis as a stand-in keeper. The game attracted Trowbridge Town’s biggest crowd of the season with an official attendance of 130 and the crowd witnessed a close and entertaining game. It was visitors Kingsdown who got themselves in front, Tyler Preedy scoring with an overhead kick to give the Swindon side the lead just after the half hour mark. Kingsdown went close to extending their lead six minutes later a shot coming back off the cross bar much to the relief of Trowbridge keeper Cameron Miller and it remained just the one goal in it at half time. Trowbridge got themselves back on level terms withinin eight minutes of the start of the second half, Simon Millard getting on the end of a Grant Gunning ball into the box. Twenty minutes from time Gunning produced another assist as his side went in front for the first time in the match, his free kick into the Kingsdown box was headed out to George Bendle who steered a shot right into the bottom corner for 2-1 to Trowbridge. The lead did not last long though, Kingsdown responding within three minutes of going behind, Louis O’Shea firing in from close range following a corner kick for 2-2. Trowbridge were not to be denied though, Bendle going from scorer to provider setting up James Rustell for what proved to be the winner as Trowbridge edged it by the odd goal in five.

The following night Shrivenham and Wroughton were involved in a close game in the re-staging of the game from the Easter Bank Holiday Monday that had been abandoned at half time due to a downpour. Shrivenham would end their season on a winning note, goals from Joshua McGory and Kieran Sutton securing a 2-1 win, Jonathan Peachey-Score with the Wroughton goal which saw him end the season as the division’s third top scorer with 33 goals, nine behind the division’s top scorer George Armstrong of Kintbury Rangers and five behind Amesbury’s Josh Moore. The win for Shrivenham saw them achieve a top half of the table for finish in their first season in the league.

Both Trowbridge Town and Kingsdown were back in action with Trowbridge away to Salisbury Development in what was Ryan Baggs final game in charge after taking over midway through last season and leading his side to the league title. With fifth place already secured Trowbridge decided to experiment with players playing out of position with their defence playing up front. Despite the experimental line up they carried on the good form since the turn of the year racing into a 2-0 lead at half time thanks to goals from Josh Howlett and Lewis Aland. Whatever the Salisbury management team said to their players at half time it certainly did the trick as they were back on level terms within seven minutes of the restart, Jamie Wintle and Dyllan Roocroft with the goals to make it 2-2. Trowbridge quickly regained the lead, Josh Howe finishing off a one-on-one with what proved to be the winning goal. Although Trowbridge created several further chances there was to be no further goals, but Trowbridge had done enough to ensure manager Baggs bowed out with a win.

Kingsdown’s penultimate game against Larkhall Athletic Development took place at the National League South Ground of Twerton ark, home of Bath City with Larkhall’s pitch having already started to be dug up to allow the installation of a new 3G pitch ahead of next season. Larkhall rested several players with one eye to Saturday’s Fountains Trophy Cup final but the two sides who were both promoted at the end of last season were once again involved in a tight match with finished honours even at one apiece with the points shared, Eddy Pope scoring for Larkhall and Antonio Gerrish netting for Kingsdown. Larkhall have ended the season in fourth place, and we await to see if they will join Amesbury Town in being promoted to Step 6, the FA possibly taking two sides from the League to fill vacancies at Step 6.

Kingsdown are back in action on Saturday away at Ludgershall Sports in what is the final game of the season in the Premier Division.

Division One

Going into Tuesday night’s games in Division One there was still one matter to be decided, who would finish in second place to join Park United in promotion to the Premier Division. At the start of the night Purton sat in that second spot but Faringdon Town knew that a victory over Kingsdown Development would see them join Park in next seasons topflight. The young well organised Kingsdown side proved to be tough opponents on the night, and it took until the hour mark for Faringdon to break the deadlock and settle the nerves, Morgan Watts heading in from a Matt Pill cross. Kingsdown pushed for an equaliser, but Faringdon keeper Jack Gibson ensured his side did not concede and held out to secure those three vital points that confirmed their elevation to the Premier Division in their first season with the league. Congratulations to Faringdon on their achievement and they are sure to be a great addition to the Premier Division next season. Kingsdown Development have now pushed several of the top sides all the way in the closing weeks of the season and could well be challenging at the other end of the table come next season.

The same night Shrivenham Development were playing their final game of the season at home to a Bratton side who, despite sickness in the camp following a meal out over the weekend, fulfilled the fixture and came away with all three points following a 2-1 win, Jack Booth and Louis Wilkins with their goals.

The following night Kintbury Rangers Development increased the gap over Cricklade Town in the table to ten points with a 5-2 home win over Lambourn Sports. Toby Thorp was the star of the show helping himself to a hat-trick, Charlie Allsop and Harry Murtagh with the other two Kintbury goals. Scott Garrett and Jamie Stones with the two Lambourn goals.

There are now just three games to go in Division One, two on Saturday and then the final one on Tuesday when Lambourn travel to Devizes Town Reserves. The Division has certainly been a success this season after last season's difficult first season and we note that it has attracted applications from 11 sides to join next season, although two have been subsequently withdrawn. For those on the Non-League Forum who like to speculate on such matters, we can confirm that the Premier Division will again have 18 teams in it with an earlier start though, whilst Division One will be restricted to 16 teams meaning that we will need to disappoint several teams. The final constitution will be published once it becomes clear whether Larkhall Athletic Development will be joining Amesbury in being promoted or whether they will remain in the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League. The three feeder leagues have all been kept fully informed on these matters.

Tomorrow sees the final of the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup at the Southbank Ground, home of Corsham Town FC, the traditional home of the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup Final. This will be the 28th occasion in the last 29 finals of the Senior Cup competition that the final has been held at Corsham. We are once again most grateful to Corsham Town FC for hosting this final, particularly given its late staging when a lot of grass pitches have already been decommissioned for summer maintenance work. The League also expresses their thanks to Paul Sebastianelli of Fountain Trophies who will be sponsoring the Senior Cup for what is their seventh season after 24 seasons of sponsoring the league’s Junior Cup competition.

Tomorrow’s final will be contested by current cup holders Larkhall Athletic Dev, who defeated much fancied Devizes Town in last season’s final, and Melksham Town Reserves. Larkhall have made it through to the final the hard way, having played away from home in each and every round. Although their semi-final was initially supposed to have been at home, the pitch issues that have caused problems all season meant the tie had to be switched to their opponents ground. Their progress to the final has not been without controversy along the way. Their defence of the cup started away at Kintbury Rangers Development and they quickly established an early 2-0 lead, and it looked like they were going to have a comfortable afternoon. However, Kintbury Rangers came back strongly and two goals from Charlie Evans saw the two teams go into the half time break all square at 2-2. Larkhall upped their game in the second half and scored another two to secure a 4-2 away win but they knew they had been made to work hard for the win. On target for Larkhall were Harvey Kendrick, Matt Morris, Ben Riccio and George McLellan. Both sides had players sent off, the ramifications of which would haunt the competition for much of the winter months of the season and highlight deficiencies in how the respective county associations administer discipline and the lack of co-operation between them on such matters. Allegations were made but, in the end, nothing could be proved.

Next up Larkhall had a tricky looking away tie at Calne Town Reserves and, despite not being at full strength, had enough to secure the win. A first for the club from Percy Winter set Larkhall on their way, with Angus Williamson adding a second to ensure the cup holders safe passage into the quarter finals.

Last season Larkhall had been the side from Division One causing the cup upsets but this time round roles were reversed as they were drawn away to Division One leaders Faringdon Town in the quarter final. Against their Division One opponents they showed they were clearly keen to retain the trophy they won at the end of last season and two goals in each half secured a 4-0 win over their Division One opponents. Angus Williamson set them on their way with the opener on 15 minutes, capitalising on a couple of defensive errors by the home side. Moments later Larkhall went close again but were denied by Jack Gibson in the Faringdon goal. They were not to be denied for long though, on 23 minutes a well worked move was finished off in style by Matt Morris to double their lead to send them into the break two goals to the good. It got even better for the visitors within four minutes of the restart when a Matt Morris effort went in off a Faringdon defender to make it 3-0 to the cup holders. The game was effectively ended as a contest just after the hour mark, Faringdon conceded possession on the halfway line, the ball was fed to Sam Whitson and his quick feet created space for himself to curl a wonderful left footed effort into the top corner for 4-0. A comfortable afternoon in the end for last year’s cup winners.

The semi-final saw them up against eventual champions Amesbury Town and the game would be postponed on two occasions, the second time only after a heavy downpour just before kick-off thwarted the days discussions and attempts to ensure the game would go ahead as planned. When it was finally staged at the third attempt, having been switched from Larkhall to Amesbury under the cup rules, it was to end in controversy. At the end of 90 minutes the two sides could not be separated with the score 1-1, Ryan Davis scoring for Amesbury and Eddy Pope for Larkhall, 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 through Andreas Smolka to go in front, Amesbury had a player sent-off for comments made to the match officials regarding an alleged foul in the build up to the goal and he then assaulted a Larkhall player as he left the pitch causing the referee to abandon the game. The outcome of the game was reviewed by the League’s Discipline Committee following the receipt of the match officials report which noted that the game had been abandoned due to the conduct of the Amesbury side, the decision was made that the score at the time of the abandonment should stand, and that Larkhall Athletic Development would progress to the final. Whilst Amesbury could have appealed the decision to the Wiltshire FA and requested a hearing, to their credit they did not, allowing the League to get on with organising tomorrow’s final. Had an appeal been made, knowing how long the discipline process involving the FA can take in such circumstances, there would have been no grass pitch available to stage the final and it would have had to be staged on a 3G pitch somewhere.

In contrast Melksham Town Reserves progress to the final has not only seen them play all their games at home at the Oakfield Stadium it has also been without any controversy. That said, the quarter final tie with Wroughton should have been switched to Wroughton’s ground after a second postponements but great collaboration between the two clubs saw it played in midweek under lights at Melksham to avoid the two sides, already behind with their fixtures, falling even further behind with their league games. Melksham actually played the very first game in this season’s competition, hosting Division One side Marlborough Town who came into the game in good form and were hopeful of causing a cup upset against their higher division opponents. However, there was to be no cup upset as goals from Jamie Ellis and Jake Dodge secured a 2-0 win for Melksham Town Reserves.

Whilst Melksham had played the first game of the Second Round their Third-Round tie against Bratton would end up being the last one played in the Round, with the tie not taking place until January due to the wet weather, with most of the other games having been played at the end of November. Melksham made it through to the quarter final stage thanks to a 5-2 win. There were two goals for both Tom Dowell and Elliot Haffenden for Melksham, Olly Clarke with the other Melksham goal, with Max Bishop and Tom Thomson scoring for Bratton.

Again, the wet weather would mean that Melksham’s quarter final tie against Wroughton would be the last of the four games played. The game was postponed on three occasions due to the wet weather and finally went ahead in midweek at the beginning of March on the outside pitch at the Oakfield Stadium at the fourth attempt. The game was to prove to be an enjoyable evening for Justin Flower’s young Melksham side as goals from Aron Byfield, Josh Bellamy and Josh Bright helped secure a 3-1 win against a strong Wroughton side, Jonny Davoille with the solitary goal for the visitors.

After much-delayed ties in the previous two rounds, ironically Melksham Town Reserves were the first to stage one of the semi-final ties, their opponents at the Oakfields Stadium were Kintbury Rangers. Second placed Kintbury started the game as pre-match favourites, but they were to end up well beaten on the night as Melksham’s high intensity pressing game completely unsettled their high-flying opponents. Melksham went in front on 15 minutes, a move down the left flank saw the ball played into Josh Bright who fired in from 15 yards. What would prove to be the only chance that Kintbury really created all night came on 22 minutes when the Melksham keeper failed to hold on to a shot, but the rebound was fired into the side netting. Melksham doubled their lead just before the hour mark, Elliott Haffenden running through the Kintbury defence and firing in past Charlie McCready in the Kintbury goal. It got worse for Kintbury on 69 minutes when Haffenden was clumsily brought down in the box for a penalty. He picked himself up to take the penalty himself, but his effort was saved by McCready but Bright hammered home the re-bound to make it 3-0 to effectively end the game as a contest. Melksham could well have scored more as they created further chances but, in the end, settled for the three that saw them safely through to tomorrow’s final.

Both finalists have had successful seasons with Larkhall Athletic Development having finished in fourth place in the division and a possible promotion to Step 6 should the FA decide to elevate two clubs from the League at the end of the season. Melksham, after last season’s struggles have been in the top half of the table for most of the season and have ended up finishing in seventh place. As well as making the league cup final they also progressed to the semi-final of the prestigious Wiltshire County FA Senior Cup, going out to fellow Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League side Amesbury Town.  The two meetings between the sides in the League have seen Melksham Town Res get the better of Larkhall, winning 4-1 at home with the return game at Larkhall finishing 0-0. The Fountain Trophies Cup Final has all the makings of being an excellent game and hopefully there will be plenty of goals to entertain the crowd like there were last season. The game at Corsham kicks-off at 3PM, entry is £3 including programme.

For exclusive insight from the team managers of our clubs read Your Sport's Swindon weekly coverage of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League. For details of how to subscribe see the advert below.

10 May 2024