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

DIVISION ONE: After two victories in the space of four days Trowbridge-based The Ship have enough points on the board to be declared Division One champions, but they must now wait for a decision of the future of North Bradley before they can be declared 2007/08 champions.

The Ship, who beat relegated Christian Malford 11-1 on Thursday hosted Foresters Arms on Sunday needing just one point to clinch the title, but took both with a 2-1 win.

The Ship led 1-0 at the interval thanks to a Lee Hayward goal which owed much to the efforts of Dave Percival who did all the hard work before unselfishly setting up Hayward for the opener.

Mark Pearce thought that he had fashioned an equaliser for Foresters but his effort in the 55th minute was ruled out for offside.

The Ship doubled their advantage on 65 minutes in bizarre circumstances. Foresters keeper Dan Neale beat Dave Percival to the ball but his clearance up field fell to Craig Brown who from inside his own half returned the ball back over Neale's head and into the empty net to make it 2-0.

With 15 minutes left Foresters had another goal ruled out, but two minutes from time they finally fired one home that counted when Greg Wilmot hit the target.

With all the hard work done the Ship must now hope that North Bradley complete the season otherwise second placed Potterne could nick the title from them when the sides meet on the final day of the season.

Coyote 2, Atworth United 2

COYOTE and Atworth United played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at Southwick.

Coyote started well and it came as no surprise when Matt Minnis took advantage of some indecision in the Atworth defence to put the home side ahead after 20 minutes.

Coyote stroked the ball around and the impressive Darren Jones was equal to any threat from the lively Sean Fordham in the first half, allowing the home side to increase their lead when David Sykes took advantage of a fine run from Minnis to score.

There was a danger that Atworth would fold in the second half but spurred on by their wish to give a good send off to manager Mark Jeffery, who is stepping down from the manager's role after this season, a corner from Craig Rees found its way into the net after pressure from skipper Brian Wiltshire and Paul Burns who both claimed a touch to bring them back to 1-2.

The game was finely balanced and Atworth's Sean Fordham, who shone in the second half, was unlucky when he volleyed over after a superb through ball by Ian Jeffery.

Twenty minutes from time a Craig Rees corner was headed towards goal by Ross Menghini only for home keeper Ashley Haines to pull off a fine save . But the rebound fell to Ashley Wheeler who stabbed in the equaliser.

With the game in the balance both teams threw caution to the wind and Ross Menghini nearly snatched his 20th goal of the season from his midfield position in the last minute but his shot ran narrowly wide.

Come the final whistle both teams were happy to settle for a point.

AFC Calne p, North Bradley p

HAVING claimed an impressive 5-3 home success over Rowde in midweek, North Bradley then went an undid all their good work by not being able to raise a team for their trip to Avebury where they were due to face AFC Calne.

On Tuesday night a hat-trick from Ryan Baggs and singles from Alan House and Kai Leather saw them end Rowde's outside chance of finishing as runners-up. Dudley Philpott, Jamie Mullings and Ray King (penalty) replied for Rowde.

Six days later, despite having 40 players signed on, only five of them turned up for the game away to AFC Calne.

Bradley now need to play the match before the weekend otherwise they will have their record expunged and they will end up bottom of the table and relegated to Division Two.

11:16am Monday 5th May 2008

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