Corsham Print
Wiltshire Senior League
 Melksham Maintain Lead,
Stratton Juniors Move Top in North

Action from Corsham Town's 2-0 win over Devizes Town (picture courtesy of David Giles)

 There were four games on Monday night in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division. League leaders Melksham Town were scheduled to be away at Radstock Town but in the end the game was switched to Melksham’s Oakfield Stadium to enable the game to go ahead, and it saw another win for leaders who retained top spot courtesy of a 3-0 win. Charlie Griffin returned to the side and scored one of the three goals, the other two coming from Simon Charity and Andy Sandell. Radstock, who remain second from bottom, are still looking for that first win of the season and will look to get that next week when they travel to Bradford Town. Melksham Town take a break from league action next week when they meet Westbury United in the Second Round of the Wiltshire Veterans’ County Cup looking to repeat their recent league win over the same opponents.

Whilst Melksham remain top FC Calne are hot on their heels and remained just a point behind following a hard-fought win over Westbury United. Westbury led 1-0 at half time thanks to a Dale Rowland goal but two second half goals from Paul Maddox enabled FC Calne to take all three points and maintain their unbeaten start to the season. They climbed a place in the table into second and remain just that one point behind Melksham but with a game in hand. The defeat for Westbury saw them drop a couple of places in the table to fourth spot ahead of that County Cup tie at Melksham next week. FC Calne are also in County Cup action next week when they meet AFC Swindon from the North Wiltshire Division.

After an opening day defeat, Corsham Town have started to find their form and became the first side to take points off Devizes Town so far this season and are now unbeaten in their last four games. It was two goals from Steve Tweddle that did the damage as Corsham secured a 2-0 win and moved third in the table, three points behind the leaders Melksham. The two goals for Tweddle saw him become the joint leading scorer in the Mid Wiltshire Division on six goals. Next up for Corsham is a Second Round Veterans’ County Cup encounter with Trowbridge Town Tigers. Devizes meanwhile will look to bounce back with an away trip to Amesbury Junior Badgers in the league.

    Steve Tweddle got both Corsham Town goals in their win over Devizes Town (pictures courtesy of David Giles)

Trowbridge Town Tigers and Chippenham Town met for the second time in a fortnight on Monday night. The first encounter had seen the two sides draw 0-0 but this time there were to be goals. First half strikes from Gino de Antonis and Nicholas Still and a second for de Antonis after the break helped Chippenham to a 3-1 win, their first of the season. Trowbridge’s consolation goal on the night came courtesy of a deflected shot which came off a Chippenham defender. Chippenham Town are another side in County Cup action next week with a cross-divisional tie against Swindon based side Redhouse whilst Tigers have that game against Corsham in the same competition.
There were two league games in the North Wiltshire Division this week starting on Tuesday night at New College where AFC Swindon and Stratton Juniors Orange met. Last season AFC Swindon had defeated Stratton Juniors in one of the two meetings between the sides, the one and only win for AFC Swindon so far in what is now their fourth season in the league. Whilst AFC Swindon have been running teams close this season there was to be no repeat of last season’s victory as AFC Swindon were beaten 4-0 by a strong Stratton side. Stratton had gone into the game knowing that a win by three or more goals would take them top of the table and they achieved just that thanks to two goals from leading scorer Vince McMackin, who took his total for the campaign to eight, plus further strikes from Matthew Bugden and Steven Webb.

The final game of the week in the two Veterans’ Divisions was on Wednesday night when Cricklade Town met Royal Wootton Bassett Town at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground. Royal Wootton Bassett Town went into the game knowing that they just needed to avoid defeat to move back top of the table. It was not to be a good night for them though as they were well beaten, Cricklade scoring four unanswered goals to climb four places in the table to fourth spot three points behind tonight’s defeated opponents and leaders Stratton Juniors Orange, but with one game in hand over Royal Wootton Bassett and two games in hand on Stratton. On target for Cricklade in their impressive win were TJ Bohane, Tom Dingle, Ryan Keech and Rob Walker. Both teams have a week off next week.

    TJ Bohane and Tom Dingle who were both on target for Cricklade Town in their 4-0 win over Royal W. Bassett Town

There were two games in the Wiltshire FA’s Veterans’ County Cup First Round this week. On Monday night Blunsdon and Swindon Rovers made the long journey to Green Lane Devizes for their tie. Blunsdon got off to a flying start going 1-0 up inside the first ten minutes through Lee Barrett after good work from Nick Frost. However, Swindon Rovers got themselves back on level terms before the break and the teams turned round all-square. Swindon Rovers went in front for the first time early in the second half but Blunsdon went in search of an equaliser and were finally rewarded when a cross from the right saw a flying header from Tyrone Spencer loop over the keeper and into the top corner for 2-2. Both teams’ created chances for a winner in normal time but both failed to capitalise, meaning penalties were needed to settle matters. Blunsdon keeper Nick Edwards saved two of the Swindon Rovers spot kicks as his side won the penalty shoot out 5-4 to make it through to the Second Round where they will meet Stratton Juniors Orange.

The second and final game in the First Round was on Tuesday night, again at Green Lane, and it resulted in a comfortable 4-0 win for Chiseldon over Swindon Old Boys. On target for Chisledon were Godfrey Chisanga, who bagged a brace, Dean Hughes and Richie Miles, the latter taking his goal tally for the season to eight and joint leadership of the scoring chart in the North Wiltshire Division. Chiseldon will now be away to Cricklade Town in the next round. Full details of the revised Second Round draw after the completion of the First Round is shown below:

League Tables

Leading Scorers

Results and Next Week's Fixtures

5 October 2022
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