Premier Division

It was a day of surprises on and off the pitch on Saturday. The first surprise was that just the one game was postponed due to the wet weather that had come in at the end of the week, mainly thanks to the efforts of various groundsman across the county and the use of 3G pitches. The one game that was postponed was also a late postponement, the match officials at Faringdon deciding that the pitch was waterlogged meaning the game between Faringdon Town and Melksham Town Reserves will need to be rearranged.

In the games that went ahead there were also surprises on the pitch with the divisional leaders in both the Premier Division and Division One falling to defeats against sides at the wrong end of the table, providing more evidence now competitive both divisions are this season. Premier Division leaders Shrewton United were away to Park United and both teams went into the game with several players missing, with home side Park United having a squad of just 12 players. As is often the way in the face of adversity, they produced one of their best performances of the season to inflict only a second defeat of the season on the league leaders Shrewton United, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Ben Pring and Zac Hiller, Lewis Cross getting the Shrewton United reply. The win for Park United saw them climb out of the bottom four, moving up five places in the table to eleventh spot. After going 16 games unbeaten in the league, Shrewton will now look to bounce back and start another unbeaten run when they travel to Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development next week knowing that, despite the defeat, they remain seven points clear of the two sides immediately below them in the table. 

Larkhall Athletic Development climbed one place in the table to within seven points of Shrewton with a 9-0 victory over Cricklade Town, which improved their goal difference no end, as well as eroding the points differential in their quest to catch Shrewton. The game remained without a goal until 25 minutes in when Ben Wickens made the breakthrough for the home side, lobbing the keeper after good work from James Okell. Having made the breakthrough Larkhall quickly doubled their lead James Payton getting on the end of an Arlo Stone free kick to make it 2-0 within a minute of the opener. A third ten minutes before the break put Larkhall well and truly in command, Ben Riccio deceiving his marker before sending an accurate 30-yard pass which allowed Spencer Dymond-Hall to fire home for goal number three. There was to be no let-up in the second half with Dymond-Hall adding a fourth within three minutes of the restart. That quickly became five, James Horrocks on his return after a month away, robbing a Cricklade defender before feeding Wickens who finished neatly for his second of the game to make it 5-0. Angus Williamson then made it 6-0 on the hour mark and three more goals in the final 15 minutes of the game rounded off a miserable and difficult afternoon for the visitors. Ben Wickens completing his hat-trick, with James Okell and Mason Nolan-Kemp adding a ninth two minutes from time.

Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development’s excellent season continued as they picked up their tenth win of the season and have now already put more points on the board than the whole of last season. Their latest three-point haul came courtesy of a 3-0 home win over Purton Kingsdown on the 3G at the Gerard Buxton Ground thanks to two goals from Flynn Walters and one from Ben Spackman. Whilst Royal Wootton Bassett Town remain in fifth spot, they moved to within a point of fourth placed Melksham Town Reserves as a result of the win and Melksham seeing their game away at Faringdon Town postponed by the referee due to a waterlogged pitch shortly before kick-off.

Pewsey Vale  kept on the heels of Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development with a comfortable 6-2 home win over bottom of the table Calne Town Reserves. There were three more goals for Josh Fowler taking his total for the season to 20, James Guthrie scored from the penalty spot with the other two Pewsey Vale goals being scored by Connor Marsden and Kyle Bird. The win saw Pewsey remain two points behind Royal Wootton Bassett having played one game less and three points behind Melksham Town Reserves having played the same number of games as Melksham. Calne meanwhile are looking in relegation trouble but have a run of games either side of Christmas against sides in and around the bottom end of the table which could well decide whether they are going to get themselves out of trouble or not.

It was to be an unhappy return to the Ian Richardson Football Ground for former Shrivenham manager Glenn Horsell who recently took over at Wroughton, having spent a short spell as a coach at Calne Town following his departure from Shrivenham. His former side have put together a decent run of results since the change of manager, and they ensured there was a miserable return for their former manager. On a wet and windy afternoon, Shrivenham outclassed their opponents on their way to a 6-1 win. Kieran Sutton opened the scoring after a misplaced pass from the Wroughton goalkeeper, but the visitors were soon level through Shane Hibbert’s header, his sixth goal of the season. Sutton restored the hosts’ lead before the break with a fine finish from outside the box and then completed his hat-trick after the break. Soon after Sutton’s third, Marshall Thompson and Brad Hirst drove home Shrivenham’s advantage, before Matthew Purcell completed the scoring with the final kick of the game. That is now nine games unbeaten for Shrivenham who remain in eighth spot but have now opened up an eight-point gap to the team immediately below them Faringdon Town. Wroughton remain in the bottom four and are now without a win in the league for seven games and with another tough game coming up next Saturday with the visit of Larkhall Athletic Development. Your Sport Swindon were at the game with their camera and highlights of the game can be viewed by clicking on the Your Sport Swindon logo below.

Saturday also saw the first game played in the Second Round of the Fountain Trophies Cup and it saw Premier Division side Letcombe up against Division One side Bradford Town Reserves. There was to be no cup upset as the Premier Division side became the first team through to the quarter final stage following a 4-0 home win. Calum Pryce set them on their way, scoring the opener after good work from Kyran Driscoll. Oscar Griffiths then doubled the lead, getting the wrong side of the Bradford Town defence before rounding the keeper and tapping home for 2-0. Two headed goals from Sean McGuire rounded off a good afternoon for the home side who immediately bounced back from last week’s defeat at the hands of Shrivenham.

Down Ampney were also involved in cup action in the Third Round of the Gloucestershire FA Senior Amateur Cup with English Bicknor from the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League their opponents. It was to prove to be a tight affair with English Bicknor eventually edging it by the odd goal, although Down Ampney felt very hard done by, with what they believe was a perfectly good goal from Connor Hibbs being denied. Hibbs did get one that did count though with Paddy Cripps getting the other Down Ampney goal.

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