League Cup Quarter Finals

Focus this week in the Veterans’ divisions of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League was on the Quarter Finals of the League Cup and it is pleasing to report that all four games went ahead as planned, with special mention to Devizes Town and Warminster Town for switching their game to Green Lane to enable their tie to go ahead.

The four cup ties got underway on Monday night at Melksham where the home side Melksham Town from the Mid Wiltshire Division entertained Royal Wootton Bassett Town from the North Wiltshire Division. It didn’t start well for the home side, Jonny Aitkenhead putting Royal Wootton Bassett Town ahead in the opening five minutes, capitalising on a defensive mistake. However, Wayne Wheeler put Melksham back on level terms midway through the first half and it remained 1-1 at the break. Wheeler then scored a second for Melksham early in the second half to make it 2-1 and Ian Dowell finally killed the game off with five minutes remaining, firing home with a close-range effort into the roof of the net to make the final score 3-1 to Melksham.

On Tuesday night at Moredon there was an all-North Wiltshire Division tie between Cricklade Town and ExIntel. The game very much went to form, Cricklade who continue to battle on three fronts having already made the final of the Wiltshire County Cup winning 3-0 thanks to goals from Nick Craft, Marcus Hall and Ben Snook.

On Thursday night there was a second cross-divisional encounter when Nationwide, the league leaders in the North Wiltshire Division, hosted Calne Town from the Mid Wiltshire Division. On this occasion is was to be the side from the North who progressed to the semi-final, a hat-trick from Richie Miles plus goals from Adam Devine and Simon Olding securing a comfortable 5-0 win for Nationwide, last season’s beaten finalists who will be looking to make the final for the third consecutive season.

The final tie of the round was on Friday night with that encounter at Green Lane between the Mid Wiltshire Division leaders Devizes Town and fourth placed Warminster Town. Devizes Town have won all ten of their league games to date and they continued that perfect record in this cup encounter, a hat-trick from Tom Slater seeing them through to the last four meaning there are two sides from each of the divisions through to the semi-final.

The draw for that semi final has already been made by Chairman Brian Busson and League Secretary Jim Thorn, and it has thrown up two cross divisional sides with the two teams from the Mid Wiltshire Division set to have home advantage. Melksham Town will host Cricklade Town and Devizes Town will be home to Nationwide, both ties set to take place in week commencing 23^rd March. Full details of the cup rounds to date is shown below:

North Wiltshire Division

In addition to the cup games there were a couple of league games in the North Wiltshire Division and one in the Mid Wiltshire Division. In the North Wiltshire Division Redhouse moved up above Cricklade into second place in the table with a narrow 1-0 win over Purton Kingsdown, Jason Milhench with the only goal of the game, his second of the season for Redhouse. The win for Redhouse saw them move to within two points of leaders Nationwide but having played one game more than the leaders. In the other league game played, FS Stratton made it five games unbeaten when they held fourth placed Penhill United to a 1-1 draw.

Mid Wiltshire Division

There was just the one league game played in the Mid Wiltshire Division involving two sides at the bottom end of the table, Barford Hornets and Trowbridge Town Tigers, who were both playing their penultimate league games of the season. It was to prove to be an enjoyable evening for the Hornets as they avoided defeat for only the second time this season, taking a share of the points following a 2-2 draw, Phil Lewis getting both Trowbridge goals in the final ten minutes of the match.