Robson Taylor Chippenham Sunday League News 2007/08  RSS feed | About

Bernie Court

THE Wiltshire Times and Chippenham News-sponsored Team of the Week award for March 23, 2008, has been awarded to Fourth Division side Old Road Tavern.

After the wipe out of the previous weekend - when no award was made - there were four teams hoping to collect the 27th award of the campaign.

Although First Division sides Chippenham Sports and Social Club and Foresters Arms and Fourth Division Three Crowns United all recorded fine victories, their achievements were surpassed by another Division Four outfit, Old Road Tavern, whose victory away at Wanderers was chosen as the outstanding result of the day.

Chippenham Sports and Social Club boosted their hopes of beating the drop from Division One with a 3-2 victory over North Bradley that saw them move off the foot of the table for the first time since September.

Karl Sharrett put Chippenham Sports ahead but after falling 2-1 behind they had to dig deep to claim their all important victory. Nick Still restored parity for the Sports before Adie White scored a hotly disputed late winner for the home team when he scored from the penalty spot to earn his team only their third win of the season as they took their unbeaten run to three matches.

Melksham-based Foresters Arms picked up one of the results of the day when they beat promotion hopefuls Rowde FC 5-2.

Rowde had already defeated Foresters 7-1 earlier in the campaign and they were expected to wrap up an easy league double, but Foresters tore up the formbook as they produced their best football of the season to claim a fully deserved victory.

Marc Harewood fired Foresters into the lead, but their advantage didn't last long as Rowde hit back to square things up at 1-1. Rowde then took a 2-1 lead and at this stage it looked as if normal service had been resumed and that Rowde were on course for win number 12 of the season. But on the stroke of half-time Foresters were given a lifeline when Greg Wilmot drove home an equaliser to make it 2-2.

The second half was totally dominated by Foresters who built on their late first half equaliser as they took the lead 10 minutes after the restart when Chris Turk made it 3-2. Foresters opened up a two-goal lead on 70 minutes via the goal of the game from Leigh Rowles-Hitchcock whose delightful diving header put the hosts in charge of proceedings and when Greg Wilmot turned home a Luke Turvey corner 10 minutes from time they had clinched a fantastic victory.

Trowbridge Town Supporters' Club suffered only their second defeat in 11 matches when they were beaten 3-1 away at The Three Crowns United whose victory extended their own winning run to five games.

Three Crowns saw a surprise but welcome return of striker Marcus Young, who it was thought would miss the remainder of the season with a broken wrist.

But Young has made a miraculous recovery and scored his team's equaliser after they had fallen behind on 20 minutes. Paul Maddox scored from the penalty spot to give the hosts a 2-1 interval lead and Adie Bray scored the Three Crowns third and all-important goal when he fired home a Gary Robinson cross.

The supporters' club had the chance to get back in the game when they were awarded a penalty but goalkeeper Steve Warner produced an outstanding save to keep the scoreline at 3-1.

Old Road Tavern travelled from their Chippenham base to Southwick and they had most probably their finest 90 minutes of the season when they defeated promotion hopefuls Wanderers 5-2.

Andy Bull started the scoring for the Tavern when he gave them a first half lead, but Bull failed to finish the game having pulled a hamstring and will now join Robbie Burton and Ryan Tyrell as spectators for the remainder of the season as manager Bernie Court believes the injury will keep him out of action for the remainder of the season.

Wanderers drew level in the second half but it wasn't long before Old Road regained their lead through Dan Belt. When Darren Jones scored a third they became a little over confident and threw players forward looking for more goals but were hit on the break as Wanderers reduced the arrears.

Old Road regained their two goal cushion when Fabian Prangle made it 4-2 from the penalty spot and the game was put to rest when Dan Hibbard scored the Old Road's fifth and final goal of the game to give them a famous win and with it a well deserved Team of the Week award for Bernie Court's side.

12:00pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

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