Sunday 31st July 2022

Royal Wootton Bassett Town open the 2022-23 Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division season on Tuesday night with a home fixture against recently relegated Mangotsfield United (Gerard Buxton Sports Ground, 7.45pm kick off).

Entry is £6 for adults, £3 for concessions and free for RWBTFC youth members.

The contest - the first of two home games this week, with Saturday's Emirates FA Cup clash against Windsor - will be the first ever competitive fixture between the teams, with the Mangos dropping into the Hellenic League after 22 consecutive seasons at Southern League level.

Opening contests are always hard to predict - and with there being no previous history between the teams, this will be the case to an even greater extent on Tuesday night.

One thing is for certain though: that Bassett will be hoping to improve upon their rather miserable recent record in season opening league games.

Over the past ten seasons, Bassett have opened a new campaign by recording three points just twice - the most recent win being a 6-1 thrashing of Tuffley Rovers at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground in 2018-19 - with four draws and four defeats during that time.

Last year Sam Collier's side recorded an impressive 2-2 draw away at eventual champions Bishop's Cleeve - but that was arguably a case of two points dropped given Bassett led 2-0 at the break.

Hopefully Bassett can get off to a winning start this season though and do so in front of a good crowd - do come along to show your support!

Last modified on Sunday 31st July 2022 at 08:00.