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Wiltshire Senior League
Premier Division Preview Season 2019-20
No. 4 - Wroughton & Corsham Town Res
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 current champions Wroughton and Corsham Town Res.
Wroughton
Team pictures courtesy of John Cuthbertson
Season 2018-19 Position
Wroughton led the table for most of the season and took the title for the third time. They almost did the double losing narrowly to Kintbury Rangers in the Cup Final. Wroughton kicked-off the season by going unbeaten in their opening nine games, seven of which were won. That sequence included a 5-1 home win over reigning champions Kintbury who up until then had registered a 100% record in their opening five league games. Wroughton’s first defeat came in midweek encounter under the lights at Malmesbury. After then drawing away at Corsham Town Reserves, a ground where no visiting team won this season, they then won six league games on the bounce to take pole position in the title race. A 3-0 home defeat to Purton could have knocked the confidence but Wroughton responded with an impressive ten game unbeaten run, which saw eight of those games being won ahead of their final game against their main rivals Kintbury. By then the league title had been secured but the two sides put on a tremendous game to end the season.
In the Dugout
Adrian Wilkinson starts his second season in charge having won the league title in his very first season. He is once again joined in the dugout by his assistant Simon Lowe.

Adrian’s Aspirations for Coming Season
Adrian’s aspiration is to retain the title that they won last season. Adrian commented that this is never easy to achieve as Kintbury discovered last season, as everyone looks to raise their game when playing the reigning champions. Indeed, no side has retained the Premier Division title since New College ten years ago but Wroughton are looking to change that, having once again assembling a strong squad ahead of the coming season.

Who Does Adrian Expect to be Title Challengers?
In Adrian’s view there will once again be 6 or 7 sides fighting it out for the title. He expects Purton to be strong this season and Kintbury will once again be up there. With the Kintbury management team from last season moving to Letcombe, it was interesting to note when Wroughton played Letcombe in a pre-season game none of last season’s Kintbury squad had followed the management team so Kintbury also look to have been successful in retaining their title challenging squad. Shrewton will be another strong side who will definitely be challenging for honours. Trowbridge were another good side last season and are expected to be up there and Melksham Town Res are always strong. Adrian noted that Wroughton had struggled to break down a resolute Ludgershall side at the end of last season and they could be another side in the mix this season. Adrian does not know what to expect from the three new sides but knows more about Stratton Juniors than the other two but commented that there does not look to be any easy games this coming season.

Key Summer Signings
Most importantly, Adrian has retained all of last season’s championship winning squad. He has then added two new goalkeepers in Gary Eggleton, who has experience at Hellenic League level, and Jack Gibson. Last season’s championship winning keeper Callum Wilkinson, Adrian’s son, will this season be playing out on the pitch, which is like making a new signing. Up front top striker Shane Hibbert will once again be leading the line and Adrian has been looking at 3 or 4 experienced options to partner Shane in pre-season. One signing to watch this coming season is 17-year-old Ben Dodd who has joined from Cirencester Town. This confident ball playing midfielder is predicted by Adrian to make a big impact in the Wiltshire Senior League this coming season.
Striker Shane Hibbert will once again be leading the line for Wroughton whilst last season's keeper Callum Wilkinson will this season be playing on the pitch.
Games Adrian is Most Looking Forward To
The two games against Kintbury Rangers. With both sides being the champions in the past two seasons the games are always big occasions and the one all the players look forward to. Personally, with them being his local side, Adrian also looks forward to the games against Purton. The games with Marlborough are another local derby game where there is normally an extra competitive edge to the games.

Bogey Side
Since Purton have dropped down into the Wiltshire Senior League Wroughton have lost 3 of their 4 league meetings against them. Wroughton’s record against Shrewton United is also not good with 8 defeats in their last 12 meetings.

Pre-Season
Wroughton, like many of our sides, had yet to experience sin-bins in pre-season games at the time of our discussion with Adrian. They have had a series of drawn games, all by a 2-2 score line, in matches against Western League side Calne Town and Hellenic League Division Two sides Letcombe and Faringdon Town. The last pre-season game they have played was in the Faringdon Thursday Memorial Cup where they lost heavily to Abingdon United Dev from the Hellenic League to exit the cup in the 1st Round.

Opening Fixtures
Due to cricket being played on the Weir Field in August, Wroughton are another side having to start the season with five away games. The full August fixtures are:

Sat 17-08-2019 Holt (A)
Tue 20-08-2019 Cricklade Town (A)
Sat 24-08-2019 Corsham Town Res (A)
Tue 27-08-2019 Stratton Juniors (A)
Sat 31-08-2019 Ludgershall Sports (A)
Corsham Town Res
Season 2018-19 Position
Corsham Town Reserves had the honour of going the whole of Season 2018-19 unbeaten at their Southbank Ground. However, inconsistent away form, including losing all of their last three games, meant that Corsham were not able to crack the top six and finished in 7th spot.

In the Dugout
Jamie Moss is another manager in the dugout for his second season and will again be assisted by Ben Thomson. The only change in the dugout sees a new physio for the coming season.

Jamie’s Aspirations for Coming Season
This coming season Jamie wants his Corsham side to be challenging at the top end of the table. He accepts that his side need to remedy their away day blues if that is to become a reality this season. He has assembled a stronger squad for this coming season and has now established a good working relationship with the First Team manager which will benefit the operation of the Reserve side this season, with players not selected for the First Team playing for the Reserves.

Who Does Jamie Expect to be Title Challengers?
Jamie noted he had not taken much interest in how sides had done in pre-season but fully expects Wroughton to be at the top again this coming season. With Kintbury have retained their squad despite the manager moving on then he would expect them to also be strong.

Key Summer Signings
As well as keeping key players such as Dan Lardner Jamie has added a number of new players to his squad. Daniel King who made 21 first team appearances scoring 5 times as Corsham First Team finished third in the Western League Division One last season has opted to play for the Reserves this coming season. Youngster Jake Dodge has joined from Bath City’s U18 side, whilst Ryan Tyrell who played 22 times for Calne Town in the Western League last season has also been brought on board. Other new signings include Ben Thelman and Ryan Withers, the latter joining from Royal Wootton Bassett Town Dev where he was top scorer in Season 2017-18 before picking up a serious injury which meant he missed a lot of last season.
Last season's top scorer Dan Lardner is back for another season but will have a new strike partner with Ryan Withers having joined from Royal Wootton Bassett Town.
Games Jamie is Most Looking Forward To
The local derby with Melksham Town Res and the early season game on the 24th of August against Wroughton who beat Jamie’s side comfortably at the end of last season and Jamie fully expects his side to put in a much better performance in the rematch.

Bogey Side
The two sides who seem to give Corsham Town Res the most trouble are Melksham Town Res and Ludgershall Sports, the latter when playing away. Melksham have won 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two sides, with just one Corsham win. Meanwhile, whilst Corsham have won 5 times in the 16 games they have played Ludgershall over the last 8 years since Ludgershall came back into the league, Corsham have lost all 8 games away from home at Ludgershall’s ground. Jamie will be keen to put that record straight this season.

Pre-Season
Corsham are one of the sides who have been most active in pre-season playing 7 friendlies at the time of writing these notes with one more still to play. After beating Staverton Utd 7-4 in their opening warm up game they narrowly lost the next three against the Army REME training side, Chesterton and their own U18’s. They followed this with two comfortable wins over Oldland Abbotonians and Bemerton Heath Harlequins Res, hitting four goals in both games. The last game saw them take on Westhill Sports, winning by 5 goals to 3, with new signing Withers hitting a hat-trick.

Opening Fixtures
Corsham Town Res open with a trip into the unknown when they take on one of the three new sides in Frome Collegians away from home in an early test of whether then can do better on the road this coming season. A midweek hosting of Malmesbury Vics Dev is followed by two tough looking games against Wroughton and Melksham Town Res. The full month’s fixtures are:.

Sat 17-08-2019 Frome Collegians (A)
Wed 21-08-2019 Malmesbury Vics Dev (H)
Sat 24-08-2019 Wroughton (H)
Tue 27-08-2019 Melksham Town Res (A)
Sat 31-08-2019 Stratton Juniors (H)

The two teams to be featured tomorrow in the season preview are Ludgershall Sports and new club Frome Collegians.

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.

Saturday 10 August 2019
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