Corsham Print
Wiltshire Senior League
Premier Division Preview Season 2019-20
No. 7 - Purton & Pewsey Vale 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 Purton and Pewsey Vale Development.
Purton
Season 2018-19 Position
After a shaky start last season which saw Purton lose four of their first five games they improved over the season and ended on a massive high with four straight wins, including a 5-1 win over runners-up and cup winners Kintbury Rangers. Indeed, after the turn of the year Purton lost just two games against Corsham Town Res and Wroughton, winning nine and drawing four as they climbed the table to finish in 5th place position, a one place improvement on the previous season.
In the Dugout
Liam Lewis remains in charge as Purton look forward to their third season back in the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League. However, he will have a new name in the dugout with him as former joint manager Neil Lee has departed and taken over at Pewsey Vale Dev. Liam’s assistant for the coming season will be Paul Farrell who was part of the coaching team and proved himself a massive asset to the club hence his appointment as assistant manager for the coming season.

Liam’s Aspirations for Coming Season
Liam expects his side to be up there challenging for honours this coming season. He has retained the core of last season’s side and strengthened in several positions. He feels that on their day his side can beat anyone, evidenced by the wins last season against both of the top two, but his side need to be more consistent this coming season if they are to challenge for league honours.

Who Does Liam Expect to be Title Challengers?
Liam expects the same top three from last season, Wroughton, Kintbury Rangers and Shrewton United to be the main three challengers to his Purton side this coming season.

Key Summer Signings
Liam has made a couple of key signings in attack, whilst retaining the services of last season’s top goal scorer Will Backhouse, despite last season’s 24 goal man being courted by a number of sides in the area during the summer months. Rob Lincoln returns to Purton after a season playing in the Hellenic Premier for Royal Wootton Bassett Town where he made 32 appearances last season scoring three times. Also joining Purton is former Cricklade Town striker Tom McCulloch, who spent the back end of last season playing for Chippenham Park in the Western League. With the added strikers to the roster, George Drewitt will move back into midfield where he has been Purton’s best player in pre-season. Liam has also added a couple of midfield players in youngster Joe English, who is dual signed with Hellenic Premier side Shrivenham, and Liam Griffin who joins from last season’s champions Wroughton.
New signing Rob Lincoln (first picture) who joins from Hellenic League side Royal Wootton Bassett Town and George Drewitt (second picture) who will drop back after playing up front last season and who has shown up well in pre-season.
Games Liam is Most Looking Forward To
The game Liam is most looking forward to is the trip to Melksham to play at their superb facilities. He is also excited about playing the three new sides, Frome Collegians, Holt and Stratton Juniors.

Bogey Side
Purton’s record since they returned to the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League is pretty reasonable against all the 12 sides they have previously played, perhaps one of the three new teams will take on that mantle of their bogey side this coming season.

Pre-Season
Pre-season has seen Purton test themselves against higher league opposition, starting with a 5-2 defeat against Step 5 side Shrivenham who play in the Hellenic Premier Division. They have then gone on to play three Step 6 sides, defeating Pewsey Vale from the Wessex league 2-1, drawing with Cirencester Town Dev from the Hellenic League Division One West, but losing 5-1 to Malmesbury Victoria from the same division. In addition, they have lost to Hellenic Division 2 side Highworth Town Res 2-1 and beaten Swindon & District league side Nalgo Sports 4-3.

Opening Fixtures
Purton open up with a re-union with former joint manager Neil Lee. The full August fixtures are:

Sat 17-08-2019 Pewsey Vale Dev (H)
Tue 20-08-2019 Stratton Juniors (H)
Sat 24-08-2019 Melksham Town Res (A)
Tue 27-08-2019 Malmesbury Vics Dev (A)
Sat 31-08-2019 Holt (H)
Pewsey Vale Development
Picture courtesy of Jacob Price
Season 2018-19 Position
Pewsey Vale Development have had some difficult seasons in recent times and last season avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth after Football ID withdrew from the league before they were potentially removed at the AGM. In the end Pewsey only finished above Devizes Town Res, who were relegated, on goal difference. Just three games were won last season, against Cricklade Town, Devizes Town Res and Football ID.

In the Dugout
Pewsey will have a new man in charge this season as Neil Lee, the former joint manager at Purton, takes over in the dugout for this coming season. The appointment of Neil is very recent, with Neil intending to take a season out for family reasons, but when the Pewsey vacancy came up for the second time over this summer, with former Shrewton manager Scott Young changing his mind about the job, the lure of the dugout tempted Neil back in. He will be assisted in the dugout by former Purton player Charlie Bodle.

Neil’s Aspirations for Coming Season
After a number of years at the bottom end of the table Neil will be looking to consolidate and push for a middle of the table finish.

Who Does Neil Expect to be Title Challengers?
Neil noted that you can never write-off Wroughton. Whilst Kintbury have lost two of their top strikers to Hungerford, the links they have established with the National League side mean they are again likely to be up there. Neil thinks his former side Purton will be the surprise packet this season having finished last season so strongly and having added fire power to their attack over the summer months to support Will Backhouse. Neil also thinks that new side Stratton Juniors could also be an outside bet for the title with a number of their players having had Wiltshire League experience.

Key Summer Signings
The side will be predominantly built around youngsters from the local Pewsey area. With their First Team having moved across to the Wessex League, a few of the Swindon based players have departed but the club has been able to pull in a number of experienced players to replace them, including the former Shrewton duo of Jesse Walters and Craig Lewis. Both are likely to feature for the First Team but may also feature for the Dev Team.
Games Neil is Most Looking Forward To
The games Neil is most looking forward to are the matches against his former club Purton, and he certainly will not have to wait long as a return trip to the Red House will be the first game of the season for Pewsey.

Bogey Side
Pewsey Vale Dev have an unwanted record in meetings with Melksham Town Res in the last 10 years, losing all 10 meetings between the two sides. There are also a number of other sides against whom they have yet to register a win in those 10 years, although they have drawn against most of their opponents, the other sides they struggle against being Ludgershall (no win in 16 games), Trowbridge Town (14 games), Shrewton (12 games), Royal Wootton Bassett Town (8 games), with all four matches against Purton and Kintbury Rangers being lost in the last 2 seasons.

Pre-Season
Ahead of tonight’s game against former Wiltshire League side Bassett Bulldogs, Pewsey Vale Development have played just two pre-season friendlies, although some of the Dev Team players have been getting action with the First Team. So far Pewsey have drawn 2-2 with Clanfield 85 Dev and lost 4-2 to Shrivenham Dev, both sides being from Hellenic League Division 2.

Opening Fixtures
Pewsey open up with a re-union with Neil Lee’s former club. The full month’s fixtures are:

Sat 17-08-2019 Purton (A)
Tue 20-08-2019 Shrewton United (H)
Sat 24-08-2019 Cricklade Town (H)
Tue 27-08-2019 Ludgershall Sports (H)
Sat 31-08-2019 Trowbridge Town (A)

Final two teams to follow ahead of the season start on Saturday.

Just a final 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  (i.e. tomorrow) if they require them to play on Saturday 17th August.

Tuesday 13 August 2019
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