Fountain Trophies Cup Final Preview

Larkhall Athletic Dev v Melksham Town Res

Tomorrow sees the final of this season's Fountain Trophies Senior Cup which is set to take place at Nursteed Road, home of Devizes Town FC, with Devizes staging the final for only the third time in the history of the League Cup competition. The two previous occasions were right back at the introduction of the league knockout cup competition, with the inaugural final of the Senior Cup being in Season 1980-81. That first final was played on a Friday night at Devizes and the final was between Calne Town and Park. In an exciting final Calne Town caused an upset that night by beating the league champions 3-2 after extra time. The last time the cup final was held at Devizes was way back in 1982-83 when Avebury made the short journey to Nursteed Road and defeated Bemerton Athletic 2-0.

We are most grateful to Devizes Town FC for allowing us to return to Nursteed Road by agreeing to host this final, particularly given its late staging when a lot of grass pitches have already been decommissioned for summer maintenance work. Thank you also to league sponsors Corsham Print for the printing of the match programme. The League Directors, Officers, Management Committee and Member Clubs also express thanks to Paul Sebastianelli of Fountain Trophies who is sponsoring the Senior Cup for what is the ninth season, this after 24 seasons of sponsoring the league’s Junior Cup competition.

Congratulations to both Larkhall Athletic Development and Melksham Town Reserves on reaching the final, for what is a repeat of the 2023-24 Final where the two teams served up an entertaining game that was eventually won by Melksham Town 2-0. If the two teams can serve up another high-quality game, I am sure the crowd will go home happy. 

Action from the 2023-24 Cup Final between Larkhall Athletic Dev & Melksham Town Res which Melksham won 2-0.

For Larkhall Athletic Development this is their third Fountain Trophies Cup Final in four seasons, having won back in Season 2022-23 when they defeated Devizes Town 5-3 in the final before that defeat at the hands of Melksham in 2023-24. Melksham Town Reserves meanwhile will be looking to win the cup for the fifth time having also won the cup back in seasons 2008-09, 2014-15 and 2017-18 as well as that 2023-24 triumph over today’s opponents.

Both teams this season had applied for promotion to Step 6 and have been involved at the top end of the Premier Division table all season. For Larkhall Athletic Development their title and promotion challenge went all the way to their final league game of the season where they needed to beat Shrewton United to claim the league title and guaranteed promotion. Unfortunately for them the result did not go their way as they fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat and, with Swindon Supermarine Development winning their final game away at Wroughton also lost out on runners-up spot by two points. They will be looking to make up for that disappointment at Devizes tomorrow afternoon. Melksham meanwhile ended the season in sixth place in the table, a one place improvement on their Season 2024-25 performance, missing out on a top five finish by just a single point.

Larkhall Athletic Development’s route to the final has seen the draw be kind to them, with Larkhall being drawn at home in all four rounds that they have been involved in. They started with two games against Division One opponents, winning both games comfortably without conceding a goal. Round One saw them defeat Bishops Cannings, a side who would go on to finish runners-up and be promoted to the Premier Division for next season, 6-0. They followed this up with an 8-0 win over Faringdon Town Development. They had a much tougher encounter at the Quarter Final stage, their game against Pewsey Vale finishing 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes meaning penalties were needed to settle matters, Larkhall holding their nerve to win the spot kick contest 5-4 to see themselves through to the Semi Final. In that Semi Final they were set to play Swindon Supermarine Development in what looked to be a superb looking game between two sides challenging for the league title on what was the annual Non-League Day. Unfortunately, despite having 37 players eligible for the cup semi-final who met the required 3 game rule, Swindon Supermarine Dev were unable to field a side denying Larkhall what would have been a bumper crowd on the biggest day in Non-League football. Following previous precedence in all League cup competitions the League Discipline Committee subsequently awarded the tie to Larkhall giving them a free passage into the final.

Melksham Town Reserves path to the final started with a big midweek win away at Westbury United Reserves in Round One, Melksham winning 12-1 in a one-sided affair. In the Second Round they played fellow Premier Division side Bemerton Heath Harlequins Reserves, last season’s beaten finalists, winning 2-0 to reach the Quarter Final. In that Quarter Final their opponents were another Premier Division side in the shape of Letcombe who Melksham were battling with for a place in the top five. In the cup game it would be Melksham who came out on top, winning 2-1, but it would be Letcombe who finished in fifth spot after the final round of league games. Like Larkhall, Melksham were to need penalties in one of their games to reach the final, those spot kick’s coming in their Semi-Final encounter with Calne Town Reserves, Melksham like Larkhall had done, winning the shootout 5-4 to make it through to the final.

Tomorrow's final has all the makings of being an excellent game between two very good sides and hopefully there will be plenty of goals to entertain the crowd. The game kicks-off at 3:00PM and the entrance fee to the ground will be £5, which includes a programme.

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