Tag: Warminster Town FC

Warminster Town 0 Wincanton Town 1

A Matt Garner strike 25 minutes from time proved to be the difference in front of a good midweek crowd of 153 at Weymouth street

The first half was very scrappy, with very few chances. On 15 minutes, Warminster won a corner which was dealt with by Wincanton, who then broke down the other end. The ball was crossed in from the left but the header was tipped over by Sam Thomson in the Warminster goal. Thomson would be a very busy man for the remainder of the game.

The next half chance was on 38 minutes, a corner came in for Wincanton, and the ball was headed back across into a dangerous area but was cleared. 5 minutes later, a stinging shot was excellently tipped onto the bar by Thomson, this be as to be the last action of the half.

The second half was much more frantic, and it was Warminster who asked the first question, forcing 2 corners in quick succession. The second corner was headed goal bound by Jakob seviour, but was comfortably saved by former Warminster keeper Nathan Ball.

3 minutes later, Wincanton had a shot after a cross wasn’t cleared, but Eben Mortimer-Taylor cleared off the line. For the rest of the game, Wincanton gradually took control, forcing 3 more wonderful saves from Thomson before eventually, the Warminster resistance was broken, Matt Garner firing into the near corner with too much power for the Warminster goalkeeper. This was followed by a little bit of a scuffle afterwards.

Overall it was a vastly improved performance from Warminster, who were missing skipper Ian Jeffery after injuring himself in the game on Saturday. Next up for town is Andover New Street, as FA Cup action returns to Weymouth Street for the first time in 12 years!

1. Sam Thomson

2. Braden Humphries

3. Spencer Dymond-Hall

4. Lewis Graham (C)

5. Jordan De Silva

6. Leigh Rodgers

7. Jack Miluk

8. Eben Mortimer-Taylor

9. Jakob Seviour

10. Dan Kovacs

11. Corey Gardner

Subs

12. Lennon Burden

13.

14. James Vincent

15. Owen Bartley

16.

17. Nick Chandler

18. Logan Cassidy

It’s All About People – Volunteers

Warminster Town Football Club has a long history. Founded in 1878 it is one of the oldest clubs in the area. It has been founded and maintained by an army of volunteers, many of whom have long been forgotten. Today, and in recent times the club has been kept going by many willing helpers and we should all be truly grateful for their work.

Over the past few months there have been changes, we have welcomed a new chairman, David Parry. Thanks must go to Pete Russell, who gave much to keep the club alive and prosper in his role as chairman. 

A list of current roles is on our website and over time any changes will be updated. One thing is sure, there will always be a need for volunteers. Without them, there will not be a football club. 

David Parry, in his role as chairman is looking to build on the community aspect of the club that Pete had done sterling work on. There are many locals who can make use of the clubhouse for private events, charity raising and more. Recent events have produced some amazing results. David says, “I want the Club to win on the field, win off the field, the right way, for us to be proud of our Club and to be proud to be part of the Warminster community”. 

Steve Spratt has taken on the role of secretary, as well as attending to many other duties as necessary. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and like any organisation there is a pile of paperwork (even if electronic) that needs to be dealt with on a weekly basis. 

Katrina Ellis is busy working as our treasurer and what a job that is! Keeping the finances under control is certainly a time consuming job that requires attention to detail. Katrina is doing an excellent job.

There are many who help, from Steve on the gate, Tony making announcements over the PA, the team manning the bar, the tea hut, the cleaners and maintenance, the list goes on. All of them unsung heroes at the club. 

It would be wonderful to have even more join our band of volunteers to help the club win both on and off the field. There are many roles and you may have some ideas to add even more. One role we should have fulfilled is a club historian. It would be good to collate records from the past and write about what is happening today to keep safe for future generations. Can you help?

To help out at the club please contact Steve Spratt our secretary by email or ask to see him on match day. [email protected] 

Wanted – Club Secretary

Warminster Town Football Club is looking for an enthusiastic fan of local nonleague football to serve as Club Secretary. This is an ideal way to enjoy getting involved in local football and make new friends along the way.

For more information please phone the Club Chairman, Pete Russell 07802 442337 and he will be delighted to discuss the role with you.

Warminster win Devizes Derby

Warminster’s first away league match of the season was to Devizes on a very ball-stopping windy day. Due to the Devizes’ home kit being red & white the new Warminster white & red away kit couldn’t be worn; therefore, the team played in blue. The new kit will have to wait a little longer before being displayed on the pitch.

The wind certainly made things difficult for both sides, holding up the ball in the air. In the first half, Warminster played against the wind, making high balls tricky. The game was very entertaining and a credit to Western League football with both teams working hard for a win. The result was a very satisfying victory for Warminster Town coming out 1 – 3 winners.

Devizes threatened Warminster’s goal in under 2 minutes with a long-range shot helped by the wind forcing Crabtree to produce a good save. Both sides continued to create opportunities to score including Charlie Walton for Warminster who fired a long-range shot over the home side’s crossbar.

The breakthrough came in the 22nd minute. James Vincent battled in the left-hand side of the penalty area to beat the keeper at his feet. He then crossed the ball, which was met by the head of Jack Miluk to score the opening goal. Around 4 minutes later Vincent ran at the keeper and fired a powerful shot which brought a very good save from the Devizes man.

Crabtree also had to produce a mixture of good and relatively easy saves from the Devizes attackers. The best save had to be by the home side’s keeper when a good ball from Lewis Graham on the right found Harry Barnes playing as a winger on the left. Barnes crossed the ball across the goal and found the hard-working Vincent who sent a powerful shot towards goal forcing the keeper to produce a fantastic save.

The first-half equaliser came for Devizes when a mix-up at the back allowed their number 10, Jack Hopper, to tap the ball home at the back post. The teams went into the dressing room all level at halftime in what had been an exciting 45 minutes of football.

The second-half would also prove to be a good advertisement for Western League football as both sides continued to press and create chances to score. Warminster’s Barnes forced a good save in the 59th minutes when the keeper managed to get a leg to prevent a goal from getting in close to his right-hand post. The rebounding ball was followed up by James Vincent who poked it just wide.

Another opportunity for the visitors missed when Vincent’s ball across the goal wasn’t seized on by Miluk or Johnson in the penalty area as it flashed across them. Andy Crabtree brought on substitute Francois Allen who used to play for Warminster a few seasons ago and is now back with the team. After excellent work from Henry McFerran, the ball got through to Allen who on his new season debut put the ball nicely into the back of the net.

Warminster didn’t sit back and rest on their lead and a long ball found Allen on the edge of the penalty area. He lobbed the onrushing keeper, and the ball went just wide of the goal.

In additional time Walton found himself on his own in the centre circle and picked up a pass ran down the centre of the pitch with a defender and goalie to beat. Walton shot low and found the back of the net, making it a very satisfying day for the visitors and taking three well-earned points.

The next game is on Saturday, August 17th when the new team to the Western League, Lebeq Utd come to Weymouth Street, kickoff 3.00pm.

Team: Crabtree, Barnes, McFerran, Graham, De-Silva, Churchyard, Miluk, Walton(c), Johnson, Vincent, Baggs R.
Substitutes (used*): Lisowski*, Allen*, Baggs K, Shanley* Ball

Warminster Town 0 v Welton Rovers 1

The first match of the season kicked off with Warminster Town wearing their new red and black kit. Following a campaign to attract more football fans through the gate it was good to see 174 in attendance. In fact, 2 Warminster supporters, Paul & Barbara travelled all the way from Kent to be here and as a thank you had their photo taken before the start of the game with some of the players.

It proved to be an entertaining game of football with honours going to Welton Rovers with the only goal scored in the first half. Warminster had an early opportunity when new signing Kieran Baggs (former manager of Melksham Town) broke free down the left, got around the keeper and the shot cleared off the line. A couple of minutes later following good work from Jack Miluk, George Butler found himself with an opportunity to shoot but the ball went high and wide over the goal.

Rover’s goal came in the 21st minute when a long range pass from Joe Garland caught out the Warminster defence and found Lewis Coleman who kept the ball away from defender McFerran. This left the attacker clear in centre of goal, at the edge of the penalty area to be able to run into the box. Whilst sliding to get to the ball to beat the onrushing keeper Crabtree he was able to toe-poke home the ball.

Shortly after the goal, Warminster had a good chance to level up when Martin Johnson flicked towards goal a good cross from Miluk but the keeper was covering his near post and pulled off a good save. This half produced several opportunities for both sides with Warminster seeming to shoot high, whereas Rovers did bring into action Carl Crabtree with some fairly easy saves but nevertheless necessary ones.

The second half got underway with Warminster determined to close the gap. Johnson went close in the opening minutes which keeper, Thomas Drewitt cleared with his leg. On 61 minutes Charlie Walton had a good opportunity for the Red & Blacks with a shot just over Rovers’ crossbar. During this half manager Andy Crabtree brought on 3 substitutes to keep the attack going. Miluk, Johnson and Baggs were replaced with Mortimer-Taylor, Wright and Vincent.

A few other opportunities came Town’s way with the fresh legs but were unable to convert. The home side were not quite at the level of sharpness that they have shown possible during the latter part of last season and no doubt this game will have helped them as they look forward to the next one.

After the match assistant manager, Rob McFerran had this to say, “Obviously disappointed that we didn’t get anything from the opening game of the season. The opening encounters saw Welton sharper all over the pitch and we did a lot of chasing trying to get a foothold in the game.

Just as we were getting to grips with the pace of the game we gave away a soft goal from a hopeful long ball that we failed to deal with.

We had plenty of opportunities to level the score before halftime but poor decision making when the better option was to pass the ball rather than shoot and woeful finishing saw us go in at the interval a goal down.

The second half saw us far more attacking with Welton sitting on their lead and credit to their back four limited us to very few chances with all the possession we had. On another day we’d have taken something from the game as Carl had a fairly quiet afternoon, but it wasn’t to be.

We make the short trip to Devizes on Saturday and this gives us the opportunity to bounce back.”

Team: Crabtree, McFerran, Barnes, Graham, De-Silva, Churchyard, Miluk, Walton(C), Johnson, Baggs, Butler Subs: Baggs, Mortimer-Taylor*, Vincent*, Lisowski, Wright* 

*Subs used.

Warminster Win The Cup!

The final preseason match saw Warminster Town finish on a high with a win at Meadow Lane in the Alliance Cup which is reserved for such battles between these old rivals. The game only saw one goal but that was enough for the Red & Blacks!

The first half saw Westbury dominate and it looked as though they would score a bucket load of goals. However, despite the constant pressure and with excellent goalkeeping from Carl Crabtree nothing from the home team hit the back of the net. 

It’s probably fair to say that in all the preseason games the first half was Warminster’s poorest performance in this season’s build up. The Town players were becoming increasingly frustrated with each other and no doubt for manager Andy Crabtree a halftime talk couldn’t come soon enough. 

Halftime came and went and from the restart Warminster Town were a very different team. The visitors were now closing down Westbury much quicker and preventing them getting back into the flow of passing the ball around as they did in the first half. 

The only goal came when 7 minutes into the second half, captain, Charlie Walton standing United’s penalty area received a throw-in from the right taken by Henry McFerren. Walton had to beat 4 defenders as he manoeuvred across the box, eventually firing home left footed into the right hand side of goal.

This second half proved to be a much better game of football and although Westbury had chances Carl Crabtree in goal produced some excellent saves. Town also had more chances and went very close to increasing their lead and so it proved to be a very entertaining match to watch.  

The season kicks off on Saturday, August 3rd and Warminster welcome Welton Rovers to Weymouth Street. The club is preparing for a good attendance and you will see on social media the campaign #makeit300 to achieve a goal of having over 300 through the gate. The pitch is looking superb, the clubhouse is welcoming and refreshments are legendary! No charge for children under 16. 

You can watch the live replay on Periscope. 

Ninth Home Win in a Row

When a bottom of the table team fighting for league survival is your opponent there is always that element of danger. It’s important not to take league position for granted and get caught out. Saturday’s opponents, Bristol Telephones sitting at the bottom of the division proved to be good opposition and played better than their league status would indicate. Warminster though wanted to continue their great run of home form and winning this match would make it 9 home wins in a row.

In glorious spring sunshine, a crowd of 109 would enjoy a good entertaining football match which shows what good value non-league football is in the Toolstation Western League. The final score in this entertaining game was Warminster Town 4 Bristol Telephones 0. This is how the game unfolded.

Warminster started very brightly with a high-intensity game, that in previous games had been missing until the second half. In the first 15 minutes, the home side had several chances including one in the sixth minute when Harry Barnes forced the keeper, Guest, into making a fine save, tipping the ball over the bar. Despite being bottom of the table The Phones played a good passing game and probably one of the best passing sides to be seen at Weymouth Street for a while. However, Warminster managed them well and worked hard to break up the passing by harrying their players whenever they had the ball.

For much of the first half, the home side pegged the visitors very much in their own half and limited them to very few opportunities to get anywhere near Nathan Ball’s goal giving him a much quieter day than in the last match against Radstock Town. The first goal came in the 29th minute following good work from Miluk, Mortimer-Taylor and Butler which resulted in a cross across the box and Jake Wright poked the ball home in the left-hand side of the goal.

4 minutes later a corner on the right was taken by Mortimer-Taylor and met by the head of Lewis Graham rising high and making it 2 – 0 to Warminster. The third goal came in the 40th minute when Butler making a terrific run on the left wing, squared the ball to Wright who then was able to fire home in the left-hand side of the goal. This made it 4 goals out of the last 3 games for Wright and well deserved for the effort he puts into each game.

At half-time, Jack Miluk returning from injury was substituted for Jake Herd. Captain Charlie Walton was also substituted early in the second-half for Stewart Lisowski. Lewis Graham in 63rd minute went close to making it 4 when he shot from the left almost along the byline and the ball ricocheted off the left-hand post, it first looked as though the keeper had punched it clear, however, a goal kick was awarded showing that it was the post that prevented a goal.

On 70 minutes a corner from the right for the home side was met by Johnson who got too much on the ball resulting in it going over the bar. 4 minutes later the fourth goal came when a ball through the centre put Wright through on goal. Wright with just the keeper to beat unselfishly squared the ball to Eben Mortimer-Taylor to slot the ball home. Warminster did not rest on their lead and continued to press throughout the rest of the match and created 4 good chances. The first two from Mortimer-Taylor one saved and the other over the bar, with two minutes to go, Butler, forced a saved and a minute later Graham did likewise.

This was a very solid performance by Warminster Town and places them in a good position to make a push for a top 5 place at the end of the season and confidence is high with 9 home wins in a row. This has been a wonderful turnaround in form compared to last season when as manager Andy Crabtree said on Twitter (@andythecrab) “last season we couldn’t win a corner!”. Andy’s comments after the game, “Really pleased with today’s performance. We played some good football on a very difficult surface. We’ve created a lot of chances and it’s good to see the lads enjoying themselves once again.”

Next game is away on Saturday, April 6th at Oldland Abbotonians and the next home game is on Saturday, April 13th when the visitors will be Bishop Sutton and perhaps making this a 10th home win in a row for The Red & Blacks.

Abysmal First Half at Portishead

The BBC weather forecast was spot on when they forecast that heavy rain would fall on Portishead around 3 pm and last for an hour or so. Right on cue, the rain started and the wind picked up speed driving the rain almost sideways! This was a game of two halves with Portishead scoring 3 times in the first half and Warminster 2 in the second, final score 3 – 2.

On an ever-increasing slippery pitch, Warminster got off to a good start putting pressure on the home side’s defence. Portishead’s keeper was called into action several times the third of which in the seventh minute, earned him a yellow card for bringing down Warminster’s Conner McKay outside of the area and some might argue should have been a red one.  

It was the 12th minute when the home side opened the scoreline with a cross from the right finding Alex Chapman who made no mistake in scoring. The second goal came on the half-hour when  Portishead went down their left and with few passes cut through the Warminster defence like a hot knife through butter and the ball was in the back of the net, nestled in the bottom far corner by Robbie Cox.

The third goal and a brace for Chapman came in the 39th minute. This all started from a free kick just inside Warminster’s half which was sent to the left of goal then passed a couple of times across the front of goal to be launched back from the right into the six-yard box for Chapman to slide in and tap home. This really was a poor performance from the visitors who just did not defend as they have done in previous games.

No doubt there had been a very strong team talk at halftime and Warminster rallied to prevent the mistakes of the first-half. It was with the wet pitch and wind going to be a struggle to get back into the game. However, the Red & Blacks battled and fought hard to prevail.

Warminster went close on 58 minutes when Jack Miluk beat his man on the right and his shot went just to the left of the far post. Substitutions were made and on came George Butler followed later by Jake Wright both of whom went on to score. The first for Wright in the 79th minute when from the left side of the box he lobbed the keeper and the covering defender and the ball sailed elegantly into the top right-hand corner.

Warminster’s second goal was a great effort from Butler who in the 83rd minute lobbed a Portishead defender then volleyed the ball with his left foot into the back of the goal. Unfortunately, despite the much better football in the second half by Warminster the score finished at 3 -2 to the home side.

After the game assistant manager Rob McFerran commented:

“Andy and I are hugely disappointed with yesterday’s first-half performance. To go in three-nil down at half time to a team who are one from the bottom of the league is not acceptable. Perhaps the mindset was we just had to turn up to get the three points, but in this league that simply isn’t the case.

Portishead gave us a lesson in the first half on how desire and determination can take you a long way in this league, and their effort in the first 45 minutes effectively sealed them the three points, so credit to them. We rallied in the second half with Jake Wright and George Butler offering some hope, but it wasn’t to be.

Our good run had to come to an end sometime but the manner in which it happened was disappointing and I know quite a few of our players will be disappointed with their first-half performances. We don’t become a bad team overnight and the last six weeks we have been in fantastic form….perhaps a bit of complacency crept in? But lesson learnt and you can be sure of a reaction from the boys on Tuesday when we travel to high flying Cheddar.”

Warminster Town v Bishops Lydeard

It was back in October when Warminster Town travelled to Bishops Lydeard and on an unusually warm and sunny afternoon came away with all 3 points following a 2 – 1 win.

We now look forward to welcoming them on Saturday, January 19th. Kick off 3.00pm. Do come along to Weymouth Street and watch the game. If you can’t we should be live on YouTube.

You can watch the game and both halves are added below..