Coyote bid to scuttle Ship’s hopes (From Wiltshire Times)

Coyote bid to scuttle Ship’s hopes

11:59am Friday 22nd February 2008

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Trowbridge-based Ship FC go into their match against local rivals Coyote knowing that a 13th successive win of the campaign will give them an outright claim to the top spot which they currently share with Potterne, who are inactive.

The Ship are the only remaining team in the whole of the league with an unbeaten record, but they will be given a tough test by Chris Carr's Coyote side who would love to become the first team to take anything off their rivals in the league this term.

Coyote will be quietly confident that if they can maintain the form that has taken them to the Parr Trophy semi-finals and seen them put together a three-match unbeaten league run they can dent the Ship's title hopes.

The match has all the ingredients to be a thriller, with a clutch of goal scorers who are on form at the moment.

The Ship have the usual suspects in Lee Hayward, Adam Nunn, Dave Percival and Tom Bonsor, who all scored in the Ship's recent 16-4 defeat of North Bradley.

Coyote's main man Chris Carr will be keeping everything crossed that both Scott Askew and Matt Minnis will be fit and available to play and, with so many good strikers on show, the result could come down to which defence and goalkeeper comes out on top.

With the game being very important the Ship might opt to leave Lewis Porter out for the gladiatorial battle as he was found wanting against his former side Westbury Rangers A in a recent cup match and the same could happen against Coyote.

With so much talent on show at the Stallards the game could draw a big crowd and might even end with Coyote making it unlucky 13 for their hosts.

Rowde v Christian Malford

THIRD-PLACED Rowde, who have four games in hand on Potterne, have the opportunity to close the gap on their bitter rivals to four points if, as expected, they overcome Christian Malford, who have not won since the end of September.

Malford's run of 11 defeats includes a 7-1 loss at the hands of Rowde who won the previous meeting of the sides thanks to goals from Dudley Philpott, Luke Stonham, Martin Robinson, Jamie Mullings (2) and Marcus Wallen (2).

Malford should be safe from relegation but they would give anything for another two points that would almost certainly guarantee them their status for another season.

Although manager Ninny Singh would like the points to come as soon as possible he is realistic enough to know that it is unlikely to come against Rowde.

Having said that, if Malford can get into Rowde as Biddestone Arms did last weekend then his team could give the Sands Lane club a few anxious moments.

But Rowde should have ample firepower to see them secure their 10th victory of the season and leave their guests with a few more nervy encounters ahead of them as they battle for survival.

Biddestone Arms v AFC Calne

BIDDESTONE Arms and AFC Calne are separated by just one place in the standings, but even if Danny's Box's Biddestone side were to take the spoils they would remain behind AFC Calne who are three points ahead of them.

AFC Calne make the trip to Cuttle Lane for a match which will reunite a number of former Calne players with their former team-mates, and the likes of Dean and Craig Fry and Calne's manager Jason Matthews would love to avenge their 1-0 loss earlier in the season when Richard Chaffey's goal separated the two sides.

The game should be a friendly affair between two very sporting sides and is likely to produce another narrow victory for one of the teams. For a second time the match might be won by the odd goal in a low scoring contest.

AFC Calne might just have the edge on current form, as they have won their last three games, including a fantastic 2-0 victory over White Hart Combe in the quarter-finals of the WG Parr Trophy last weekend, while Biddestone Arms have managed maximum points just once over the same period.

But Biddestone Arms have been playing reasonably well and could raise their game enough to help them to a league double.

Arms will be hoping that midfield playmaker Joe Chaffey has recovered from a knock he picked up in last week's 4-3 defeat against Rowde, while AFC Calne will give a league debut to Mark Dolman, who has joined from North Star A and he will be keen to get off the mark and add to the 14 goals he scored for his former club.

North Bradley v Atworth United

NORTH Bradley manager Steve Eade is slowly getting fed up with players letting him down and the former Trowbridge Town captain could be on the verge of quitting the club that he took over at the start of this season.

Family commitments meant that Eade missed Bradley's 16-4 defeat against the Ship last weekend but, having started with just nine players and finishing the game with seven, it is no surprise that Eade is thinking about his position.

Eade believed that he had at least 13 players making the trip to Trowbridge but the likes of Chris Gale and James Dowd and a few others failed to show, leaving them with just nine men and from then on the writing was on the wall.

North Bradley entertain Atworth United on Sunday and Eade might be tempted to call on former players Simon Lunt, Damon Berrelly and Pete Taylor to get their beloved side through a tough spell which could get even harder against Parr Trophy semi-finalists Atworth, who have won their last three league games, while Bradley have lost their last three.

Bradley will be hoping that Kieran Baggs, who scored a hat-trick on his debut last weekend, will return for a second match and that they still have the services of goalkeeper Mark Binns, who walked off last Sunday, and striker Stuart Powell, who is rumoured to be set to leave the village side.

Atworth, who won the earlier meeting of the sides 3-0, will want to take advantage of the turmoil within the Bradley camp and should complete a league double.

Foresters Arms v British Lion

THERE should be a fascinating game at Awdry Avenue, Melksham, where evenly matches sides Foresters Arms and British Lion FC clash for the second time this term.

There is a very good chance the result will mirror that of the first meeting when the honours were shared in a 2-2 draw.

Back in September, goals from Duncan Biggin and Darren Brown earned Lion their point after Marc Harewood and Steve Pegler, who has since left the Foresters, had netted for Pat Johnson's side.

Foresters have been in impressive form of late and although they lost in the cup last weekend they have won their last three league matches and will be out to keep their good run going and if the Lion are switched off in any department they could be caught out by the Foresters, who are still rebuilding after 18 mouths of upheaval that saw them having to rebuild a side after they lost the majority of their 2006 knockout cup winning side at the start of last season.

This campaign has seen the arrival of many new faces and at last they are starting to gel together and they are starting to function as a team again rather than individuals.

They have a long way to go until they get back to their glory days but they are slowly getting there and this game could see them beat their guests who really should take the points on offer.

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