Corsham Print
Wiltshire Senior League
Premier Division Preview Season 2019-20
No. 5 - Ludgershall Sports & Frome Collegians
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 Ludgershall Sports and new side Frome Collegians.
Ludgershall Sports
Picture courtesy of Martin Pearce
Season 2018-19 Position
Ludgershall Sports finished just below halfway last season. On their day they were the match for some of the top sides as evidenced by their 1-1 draw away at champions Wroughton and their 1-0 wins over both Shrewton United and Melksham Town Res. However, on other days, against the same opponents, they can sometimes be beaten heavily as evidenced by the 8-3 defeat at Melksham and the 7-3 and 6-0 defeats against Cricklade in the league and Wilts Senior Cup, having drawn 1-1 with them in their first league meeting. In the end they finished in 9th spot, a two-place improvement on the previous season and they will look to continue that upward trend this coming season.
In the Dugout
Yet another manager starting their second season in charge, Steve Slater is joined in the dugout by Luke Soulby who joined the club at the end of the last season.

Steve’s Aspirations for Coming Season
Steve expects the league to be tough next season and he goes into it with something of a changed side with a number of the regulars in recent seasons coming to an end of their playing days. His side going into the new season will be much younger than it has been previously with a number of youngsters, who were previously part of the Youth Section at Andover, but having started with Ludgershall, returning to the club, a little bit older and with some senior football experience.  A couple were blooded in the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League last season and will benefit from that experience going into the new season. Overall Steve wants to finish in a higher position than last season and do better in the two cup competitions. As noted above, last season was so up and down for his side and he hopes for more consistency this coming season.

Who Does Steve Expect to be Title Challengers?
Steve sees the usual suspects being in the hunt for the title, Melksham Town Res, Wroughton and Kintbury. All three have always been strong sides. He also expects Shrewton United to be another side battling for the league title this season.

Key Summer Signings
In addition to the youngsters that Steve noted were returning to the club, Ludgershall will also benefit from the influx of army personnel returning to the UK. Over 500 army families have recently moved into the area and there are some useful footballers amongst them. A number of good army players have been training  pre-season and have signed for the coming season, so with these plus the youngsters and the five or so regulars remaining from last season Steve believes he has a good mix to achieve that aspiration of continuing the upward trend in the league table and to have some cup success.
Games Steve is Most Looking Forward To
Steve is most looking forward to the games against the top sides, anything that will be a real test for his team. His side seem to raise their game for such matches.

Bogey Side
Whilst Ludgershall have lost all four league matches they have played against Kintbury Rangers, just by the size of some of their defeats, Cricklade Town are their real bogey side having lost 11-0, 9-1, 7-0 and 7-3 in four of the league games against Cricklade. They drew at home last season and won 4-2 at home in 2016-17, but when the sides met season in the Wiltshire Senior Cup Cricklade hit another six without reply.

Pre-Season
Ludgershall opened their pre-season matches with a 2-1 win over Andover & District League side Broughton Sports. However, the two other pre-season games have resulted in defeats with Ludgershall losing 9-1 against Downton Dev and 5-2 against former Wiltshire League side Tisbury United on Saturday.

Opening Fixtures
Ludgershall have a tough opening month with games against Wroughton, Kintbury Rangers and Melksham Town Res. The full August fixtures are:

Sat 17-08-2019 Melksham Town Res (H)
Tue 20-08-2019 Kintbury Rangers (A)
Sat 24-08-2019 Royal W. Bassett T Dev (H)
Tue 27-08-2019 Pewsey Vale Dev (A)
Sat 31-08-2019 Wroughton (H)
Frome Collegians
Season 2018-19 Position
Frome Collegians are a new club to the league joining from the Mid Somerset League having last season won the Premier Division of that league, also winning the league’s knock-out cup and county cup competitions to achieve a treble for the second consecutive season. Frome were formed in 1976 and played in the Trowbridge & District League in their early years before joining the Mid Somerset League from which they progressed through to make the Premier Division of that league from which they then gained promotion to the Somerset County League Division. They progressed through the divisions of that league to also make it to the Premier Division. However, their first ever season in the Premier Division was to prove problematic though as a bad winter for weather caused them to fall dramatically behind with their fixtures and with the prospect of having to play 18 games across the county in the final six weeks of the season they were forced to withdraw from the league. Since then they have played back in the Mid Somerset League. They finished 3rd in their initial season before doing that treble in 2017-18, which they repeated again last season.

In the Dugout
Karl Freeman, who joined the club in March 2017 and was the architect of their two trebles will be back in the dugout for this coming season with Joe Upshall, one of his players, acting as his assistant. Joe has been a player at the club for around 10 years.

Karl’s Aspirations for Coming Season
Having sought to defend a treble last season, which brought with it a lot of pressure on his side, more than anything Karl is hoping he and his side can enjoy the games a bit more this coming season. There are no heavy expectations to win the league or finish in the top half and anything above 12th place would be viewed as a successful season in their first campaign at this level and give a platform to build on in subsequent seasons. For a number of his players this will be their very first season of Senior football, a few have played in the Somerset County League but none have Wiltshire League experience so this season will be a journey into the unknown for his side.

Who Does Karl Expect to be Title Challengers?
Karl knows very little about the sides in the league, the only team Frome Collegians have played previously in recent times being Trowbridge Town who they met in a pre-season friendly back in 2017, drawing the match 1-1. Karl expects that it will be the same 5 or 6 sides battling out at the top, the likes of Shrewton United, Wroughton and Kintbury Rangers. He also expects Melksham Town Res to have a good side as their facilities and set-up will help attract players to the club.

Key Summer Signings
Whilst the nucleus of last season’s successful treble winning squad has remained Karl has also brought in some new additions to strengthen the squad ahead of their new venture. He has brought in experienced defensive midfield player Peter Sturman who has Western League experience. Nicholas Taylor joins from Warminster Town where he made 10 appearances in the Western League last season scoring twice, he also hit 10 goals for their Reserves in the Trowbridge & District League where the previous season he had been the league’s top scorer with 31 when playing for Luxol St Andrews. He has already scoring a couple for Frome in pre-season. Karl is also working on bringing in two or three more ahead of the season.
Games Karl is Most Looking Forward To
For Frome Collegians, this coming season is one of massive excitement and anticipation as they get to play against opponents who they have never played before and travel to new grounds. For them the last 10 years has seen local derbies against the same teams but now they have two big local derbies with Trowbridge Town and Holt just down the road. These two games are the big ones for Karl and his side this season and they will not have to wait long as they play both midweek in the first month of the season.

Bogey Side
Yet to be determined.

Pre-Season
Frome Collegians have been pretty active in pre-season. In their opening pre-season game they lost 2-0 to Somerset County League Division 2 side Castle Carey. A 3-3 draw with AFC Brislington from the same division was followed by a 5-2 defeat against Somerset County league Premier Division side Westfield. The last game they played saw them secure a 4-1 win over Staverton United, a new side to the Trowbridge & District League this season. They finish their pre-season games with a home game against Pilton United on Tuesday evening.

Opening Fixtures
Frome start off with three home fixtures including a visit from last season’s runners up and cup winners Kintbury Rangers and the first local derby in midweek with Holt. They also play near neighbours Trowbridge Town in their second midweek game. The full month’s fixtures are:

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

The two teams to be featured tomorrow in the season preview are Marlborough Town and  Royal Wootton Bassett Town Dev.

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.

Sunday 11 August 2019
Share by: