Corsham Print
Wiltshire Senior League
Premier Division Preview Season 2019-20
No. 1 - Shrewton Utd & Malmesbury Victoria Dev
With the new 2019-20 Season almost upon us, we look forward to the new season with a brief look at each of the teams in the Premier Division for Season 2019-20. The preview is based on pre-season discussions with the respective team managers as they look forward to the coming season. Each preview will look at two teams and today the two featured teams are Shrewton United and Malmesbury Victoria Development.
Shrewton United
Season 2018-19 Position
Shrewton opened last season with six wins in their opening seven games, the only blemish being a 5-1 defeat away at Cricklade Town. However, three straight defeats against the top sides Kintbury Rangers, Wroughton and Melksham Town Reserves in late September, early October, saw Shrewton lose ground on the leaders. Both Wroughton and Kintbury went on to complete the double over Shrewton, as did Cricklade Town. With just three more defeats all season Shrewton finished in third spot and ended the season as the league’s top scorers, just five short of 100 for the season.
In the Dugout
Joe Sheldrake is one of a number of the league’s managers entering his 2nd season in charge looking to build on last season’s 3rd place finish having taken over from Scott Young in the early part of last season. He will be assisted by former Devizes Town Res manager Geoff Jenks.

Joe’s Aspirations for Coming Season
Having finished in 3rd spot and strengthened over the summer the overall aspiration is to win the league this coming season and then take promotion to Step 6. Whilst a similar position to last season would enable promotion Joe’s view is that you really need to win the league if you are going to make the step up. Whilst grant funding is available for a new stand at the Recreation Ground, further fund raising would need to be done in order to ensure current ground grading requirements are fully met. Should the club look like they will win the league such fund raising will be undertaken.

Who Does Joe Expect to be Title Challengers?
Joe expects both Wroughton and Kintbury Rangers to once again be up there with his Shrewton side battling for league honours. He expects Shrewton to be a lot closer with the signings they have made over the summer. He believes Melksham Town Res will again be up there and, with Frome Collegians having done the treble two seasons’ running they clearly come into the league with a winning mentality, so it will be interesting to see how they perform at the higher level. Joe also notes that Corsham Town Res have a good manager in Jamie Moss and appear to have strengthened and will be another side he expects to see in the title mix this coming season.

Key Summer Signings
Most of the key players who finished last season have re-signed but Joe has also been busy over the summer and has made five new signings who will be making their debuts for the club this coming season. Goalkeeper Reece Knowles joins from Amesbury, centre back Kieran Green moves across from Trowbridge Town and striker Saul Johnson, who played for Westbury United Reserves last season, has been recruited to add even more goal scoring capability to the side that finished as last season’s top scorers. The other two new signings are dual registrations from Amesbury Town, Jamie Ritchie and Lee Weeks, both having helped Amesbury achieve promotion to the Wessex Premier last season. In addition to these five, Connor Cutler and Dean Smith return to the club having departed at the beginning of last season.

Games Joe is Most Looking Forward To
The games that Joe is most looking forward to are the games against what he referred to as "the big two", Kintbury Rangers and Wroughton, as he feels it is always good to test yourself against the best sides. In terms of location and settings, Joe views the playing surfaces at Melksham Town and Royal Wootton Bassett Town as just fantastic to play on.

Bogey Side
With just one win and three defeats in their previous league meetings, plus a defeat in last season’s cup semi-final, Kintbury Rangers are the only real bogey side that Shrewton have. That said, they do also seem to struggle against Cricklade Town.

Pre-Season
Shrewton have probably been one of the most active side in the league in pre-season having played six pre-season fixtures. They opened with a game against the Army REME side based at Lyneham, winning 4-2. They then had a comfortable 7-1 win over Trowbridge & District side Heytesbury. Wessex league side Andover New Street were the first higher league opposition in pre-season, and were 4-0 winners over Shrewton. Shrewton pushed another Wessex side Romsey Town all the way before going down narrowly by the odd goal in seven. In between they had a comfortable 5-2 win over Tadley Calleva Res. They ended their pre-season programme with a 3-2 win over Dorset Premier League side Blandford Utd.

Opening Fixtures
Shrewton are one of a number of sides who have to start their season on their travels due to cricket using their pitch during the month of August. Their first five games see them take on two of the new sides, Holt and Stratton Juniors.

Sat 17-08-2019 Cricklade Town (A)
Tue 20-08-2019 Pewsey Vale Dev (A)
Sat 24-08-2019 Stratton Juniors (A)
Tue 27-08-2019 Holt (A)
Sat 31-08-2019 Royal W. Bassett T Dev (A)
Malmesbury Victoria Development
Season 2018-19 Position
After a tough start to the season which saw them lose their first seven games, conceding 35 goals in the process, Malmesbury Victoria Development turned their season around with a 2-0 midweek win over eventual champions Wroughton. An unbeaten four game run either side of the New Year saw them climb away from the bottom of the table and a good end to the season which saw them lose just three of their last ten games and finishing in 10th spot, well clear of any relegation issues.

In the Dugout
Troy Prentice, who started last season as joint manager with Scott Liddington, remains in the dugout for a second season where he is joined by former Dev team manager Dave Sheppard, who also comes in as joint manager. Work commitments mean that Scott Liddington will this season concentrate on the U18’s.

Troy’s Aspirations for Coming Season
To roll on from how they finished last season, this time making a much better start so as to feature in the top half of the table. Last season’s fixture list at the start of the season was not kind to them and they have been given two tough away games to open with again this coming season but Troy takes his side into the new season in confident mood.

Who Does Troy Expect to be Title Challengers?
The usual suspects, Kintbury Rangers, Wroughton and possibly Melksham Town Reserves.

Key Summer Signings
The key signings made have been to retain the core of the squad that finished so well at the end of last season, including leading scorer Gareth Jones. A couple of new centre-backs have been signed and the club expect to be much stronger at the back and have added a few players who were playing in the Swindon & District League last season.

Games Troy is Most Looking Forward To
Malmesbury, like a lot of sides, are looking forward to playing the three new teams but also always look forward to their local derby games against Royal Wootton Bassett Town, managed by their former coach Steve Chadwick, and Cricklade Town. Malmesbury also look forward to their games with Shrewton United, although they have lost them all in recent times.

Bogey Side
All six games against both Cricklade Town and Shrewton Utd have been lost in the last three seasons. Malmesbury also struggle against Melksham Town Res with just one draw to show from their last ten meetings, Melksham winning the other nine.

Pre-Season
Malmesbury opened their pre-season with a game against Gloucestershire County League side Gala Wilton, going down 7-1. They were also one of a number of sides in the league to play the Army REME training side based at Lyneham, losing narrowly by the odd goal in five. A 5-3 win over local neighbours from the Cirencester & District League, Minety was followed by two fixtures against sides from the Swindon & District League, Swindon AFC and Blunsdon Utd.

Opening Fixtures
Malmesbury open the season with a couple of tough looking away fixtures at runners-up and cup winners Kintbury Rangers, followed by a trip to Corsham Town Reserves where no side won last season. They then have their first game against one of the three new sides when they make the trip to Holt.

Sat 17-08-2019 Kintbury Rangers (A)
Tue 20-08-2019 Corsham Town Res (A)
Sat 24-08-2019 Holt (A)
Tue 27-08-2019 Purton (H)
Sat 31-08-2019 Melksham Town Res (A)

The two teams to be featured tomorrow in the season preview are Kintbury Rangers and new side Swindon based Stratton Juniors.

Just a reminder to all Premier Division teams that, in accordance with league rules (Rule 18(B)(ii)), for the first game of the season teams need to register a player by 3pm on Wednesday 14th August if they require them to play on Saturday 17th August.

Wednesday 07 August 2019
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