The top game of the night in the Under 18 Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League was at the Gerard Buxton Ground where two unbeaten sides, Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Kintbury Rangers, met each other with early leadership of the division at stake.

It was a cagey opening 25 minutes with few clear-cut chances but with Kintbury having the greater share of the possession playing some neat passing football.

However, they fell behind on 26 minutes when a quick break from the home side saw Joey Warren fire a shot from the edge of the box that came back off the bar and leading scorer Jacob Rendell-Haines headed in from the rebound for 1-0.

Kintbury continued to have the better of the possession but found themselves 2-0 down on the half-hour mark. Another quick transition from defence into attack saw the ball find the lively Charlie Stammers on the right flank and his low powerful cross into the box was deflected into the own net by a Kintbury defender.

Five minutes later the home side had the ball in the net once again but this time it was correctly disallowed by referee Rhiannon Stevens for offside with the goalkeeper not between the goal and the attacker when the ball was played into him.

Kintbury finally started to create chances from their domination of possession and went close with a powerful shot which was turned away for a corner by keeper Jack Rae. The resulting corner was then almost put into his own net by a Bassett defender, with an attempted clearance hitting the post and then being cleared to safety for a lucky escape for the home side.

With a minute to go to half-time the home side were awarded a free kick 25-yards out. Warren fired the ball into the box and Rendell-Haines reacted quickest to the loose ball and tucked away his second of the game to make it 3-0 at the break, somewhat harsh on the visitors who had been playing some neat football but without the end product that the home side had demonstrated so well on the break.

Kintbury came out for the second half in determined fashion and were rewarded two minutes after the restart when Jowan Partridge in the home defence failed to deal with a ball into the box and Joseph Sheridan pounced to pull one back for the visitors.

Kintbury continued to try and get themselves back in the game and went close to reducing the arrears 15 minutes from time when a free-kick went just wide of the angle of post and crossbar.

The home defence restricted any further chances for the visitors and safely saw out the remaining minutes to claim all three points and early leadership of the division.

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 25th September 2022 at 22:28