Premier Division Round-Up 23-Jan
DJ, leaves Lacock spinning with double against title rivals
FC Lacock 3 AFC Melksham 4
With FC Lacock and AFC Melksham due to meet each other in the semi-final of this year’s Wiltshire Sunday Cup in two week’s time, their meeting at the Rec in Lacock on Sunday morning gave the clubs the chance to lay down an earlier marker ahead of what will be the biggest game of the campaign to date for both of the top flight heavyweights.
Having dropped their first Shoestrings-chargrill sponsored Chippenham League, Premier division points on the season last weekend, AFC Melksham bounced back from their draw with Chippenham Icons to beat their titles rivals as they edged a seven goal classic 4-3 that may prove pivotal in deciding this seasons champions.
Fielding a number of young players, AFC Melksham would have been happy to come away with a point before the game.
After a lively start from both teams, that looked unlikely with Lacock going 1-up thanks to a well taken driven shot by Eddie Summers on 11 minutes. Melksham hit back quickly with an equaliser after a superb run by Jordan Kirk on 16 minutes. He beat 4 players on the edge of the area and followed up with a great finish into the top of net above Dave Cardus in Lacock’s goal.
Three minutes later, DJ Wheeler made it 2-1 to slick after a slick one-two with Paul Gittins on edge of area gave him space to blast ib beyond a helpless Cardus. Melksham could have made it 3.1 but hit a free kick into the Lacock wall after 42 minutes, with the follow up blazed over by Wheeler.
The same player made up for his miss just 2 minutes later, when his free kick from 20 yards found the back of the net after Lacock’s wall inexplicably split to let his mishit shot reach its target and give Melksham a well-deserved 3-1 half time lead.
Lacock came out with more intent in the second half and piled pressure on the Melksham defence.
Led superbly by Jayden Pierce, the visitors held out. On 46 minutes, a good chance for Lacock was squandered by Billy Gleed, created by Summers and on 55 minutes another attack from Lacock saw the ball fed to Gleed who was forced wide by Pierce. Gleed got his shot away but the angle was against him and the ball went agonisingly across goal.
Shortly after, a long punt from Lacock needed to be tipped over by the reliable Adam Dinsah in the Melksham goal.
With pressure mounting on them, a rare break on the hour mark saw James Dark miss a good chance for Melksham which would have killed the game.
2 minutes later though, AFC were down to 10 when skipper Jordan Kirk was sin binned for dissent. Despite having the extra man for 10 minutes, Lacock couldn’t break through the dominant AFC defence
However, no sooner was Kirk back on the pitch than Lacock finally scored the goal their second half pressure deserved, with a free kick being toe poked past Dinsah in the Melksham goal to make it 3.2.
Just 2 minutes later, it looked all over again, with Seth Wain scoring a penalty for Melksham to make it 4-2 after Wheeler was clumsily fouled. But, a straight red on 80 mins for Kieran Pierce left Melksham a man short.
For the first time all game, Gleed lost his marker and lobbed the keeper to make it 4-3 on 82 minutes.
But in spite of sustained pressure from Lacock against the 10 men of Melksham held on to secure a deserved 3 points.
Man of the match … Jayden Pierce (dominant and composed centre half performance from a young player against experienced and talented opponents)
FC Devizes United 6 Chippenham Icons FC 5
Devizes edge out Icons in 11-goal thriller
Wiltshire Cup semi-finalists, FC Devizes United have been in fine form this season, having lost just two of their fifteen matches to date, however one of those defeats came against Chippenham Icons in their Knockout Cup meeting, but that was after Oscar Webster’s young Devizes side had beaten their opponents 3-1 in the reverse league encounter.
Devizes won on this occasion, however their 6-5 triumph was a lot closer than they would have expected it to be, especially as they led 5-0 at the interval before Icons staged a brilliant comeback before losing out in the eleven goal thrillier.
5-0 up at the break courtesy of a brace of goals from Kian Fulford and a goal apiece for Jamie Walters, Oscar Webster, Daniel Skinner, Devizes looked set to chalk up a big win, however didn’t happen as Icons pegged their hosts back to 5-4, goal coming from Clinton Hartley, Mike Hill, Rich Hudson and Carl Summers.
With Icons back in the contest, the next goal was always going to be important and it went the way of Devizes who opened up a 2-goal cushion when Fulford made it 6-4 with his third of the contest. Although, Hartley grabbed his second of the game to make it 6-5, it was enough as they were unable to conjure up a sixth that would have seen them claim a deserved share of the spoils from the thrilling encounter.