United shock Lacock to reach Knockout Cup Final AFC Melksham and FC Devizes United will contest this season’s A M Print & Copy sponsored Knockout Cup Final following semi-final victories over respective opponents Pack Horse FC and FC Lacock. Dave Jenkins, who is in his first season as Melksham manager, will be happy to have avoided a potential banana skin after booking their place in next Sunday’s final with a nail-biting 3-2 triumph over Gary Williamson’s Pack Horse outfit. Cup favourites, Melksham, who suffered a 2-0 loss to Box Rovers in the 2019 final, looked to be coasting to victory as they went 2-0 up in the opening 15 minutes as Joe Maloney gave them the lead on 9 minutes and Jordan Kick doubled the advantage 5 minutes later.
Heavyweights set up semi-final showdown Just over a year ago and before the Coronavirus led to 2019/2020 season being curtailed, FC Devizes United and FC Lacock had set up a much anticipated A M Print & Copy sponsored Knockout Cup, semi-final showdown. That game never happened, however the pair will get to face each other next week as Devizes top Group A and Lacock finished as Group B runners up. Oscar Webster’s Devizes side defeated Calne United 4-0, thanks to goals from Logan Anning, Declan McStavick and Kian Fulford who netted twice.
Pack Horse 4 Sporting Box 3 In the other Group A, a 4-3 victory for Pack Horse saw them edge out Sporting Box in a 7 goal nail biter. Jay Painter with 2 and Lee Grealish found the net for Box, however it was enough as Jack Williamson, Max Wyatt and a brace for Josh Mardle won it for Pack Horse whose reward it a trip to cup favourites AFC Melksham for their semi-final.
Grassroots WITH the Shoestrings-chargrill, Chippenham Sunday League set for a shorter than usual one week Christmas break, many teams found themselves with an additional free week as the atrocious weather conditions of the last week meant that a number of games were lost to waterlogged pitches. The only league fixture that survived the rain was at Leafy Lane where hosts Chippenham Icons beat Royal Oak 4-2, to claim a fifth successive victory which move them above Lavis FC at the top of the Division One table thanks to their superior goal difference. Icons opened the scoring through a Jacob Duckett own goal, but they were pegged back when Rich Tandy was on hand to restore parity. Dan Fowler regained the lead for Icons who gained the upper hands on the Oak men, with a further 2 goals from Fowler to complete a first half treble to give his team a 4-1 interval lead, his second being a sublime strike from distance
Grassroots WITH the first round of this season’s Wiltshire Sunday Cup taking centre stage this weekend, the only league fixtures from the shoestrings-chargrill Chippenham Sunday League were in Division One, which saw both scheduled matches played, unlike the Sunday Cup were five matches were lost for various reasons, which in turn will lead to more fixture chaos for the league, in what has already been a disjointed campaign. Bremhill View were in no mood to give out any early Christmas gifts as a 7-2 triumph over Sporting Box saw them claim a fourth straight win to maintain their 100% start to the season.