The Western League is experimenting with Friday evening games, and Corsham Town FC decided to try this out on Friday, March 15th against Warminster Town FC. The weather was somewhat disappointing with rain blowing across the pitch, but thankfully 184 braved the weather to watch this match, with enough cover for those who wanted to stay reasonably dry.
Corsham got off to a bright start and opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Josh Bright from the left turned the defender and then without being closed down rifled home a superb shot beating Nathan Ball in goal shooting into the top right corner.
In previous games, it seems that Warminster require time to settle in and this one was no exception. In the opening part of the first half, there was a lot of defending to do possibly not helped by the fact that the visitors had several regular midfield players unavailable and so there was a different midfield line up. Charlie Walton for one could not play as he is serving a 4-match suspension. Warminster kept playing out long-balls which Corsham usually managed to pick up and resume the attack.
Nathan Ball came to the rescue on several occasions, and also Corsham missed a couple of clear opportunities to test him out. Warminster though continued to battle and in the final minute of the half, a free kick was awarded halfway in the home side’s half by the right touchline. Ryan Baggs took the free kick which went through to the keeper in the centre of a crowded goal who punched the ball away with Jake Wright finding it took one touch then right-footed it home. As expected the whistle blew shortly after the restart with both sides on level terms.
With the second half underway, the visitors had an opportunity with a free kick 30 yards out in the 54th minute which Butler fired a little over the crossbar. Around 8 minutes later another free-kick was awarded to Warminster in a very similar position to the one just described. This time the kick was fired in lower but comfortably saved by Adam Clatworthy in goal for Corsham.
On a couple of occasions in this half Nathan Ball had to produce a fine save to keep the home side from scoring. Overall the teams were playing at about the same level which for the visitors lying at the start of the match in 9th place and Corsham in 4th is a testimony to how much the Red & Blacks have been improving over the past few months.
Warminster’s second goal came very late (86) in the game following some good work down the left-hand side and passed to Martin Johnson who wriggled his way through across the 18-yard line and lobbed the keeper with the ball dropping under the crossbar in the right-hand corner of the goal. This left little time for Corsham to recover. Warminster did have a final chance to make it 3 when yet another free kick in a similar area to the others described was awarded with only a couple of minutes to go. Butler once again sending the ball just over the bar. The final whistle blew with yet another win for Warminster Town.
The next game is at Weymouth Street on Saturday, March 23rd when Radstock Town will be the visitors. A social media campaign is well underway to have at least 200 through the gate for this game, so if you’re available and would like to see some exciting local non-league football do come along. Kickoff 3.00pm
Team: Ball, Baggs, Barnes, Graham, De-Silva, Lisowski, Miluk, Herd, Johnson, Wright, Butler subs: Sisson, McFerran, Pollock, Collyer