WARMINSTER Town Reserves got their season off to a winning start with a 4-3 win against newly-promoted Calne Eagles in a thrilling opening game at Weymouth Street.

The match was only decided with two minutes to go through an unstoppable 25-yard strike from Warminster midfielder James Collett.

This was after the spirited away side had clawed their way back into the match on three occasions thanks to a superb hat-trick from their Captain Stuart Windsor.

Calne Eagles have been hit in pre-season by the loss of their regular strike force of Adam Bewley and Rory Davis.

They were also missing numerous regular players from last season for this match. However, they more than matched opponents during this opening game and showed that despite having a depleted squad that they can still compete admirably in the division.

Warminster started the far stronger side in the early stages and opened the scoring after only 10 minutes when Shaun Sheppard got in behind Calne’s defence and set-up James Collett who fired home from close range.

However, Calne struck back almost instantly through their versatile club captain Stu Windsor, who was playing in his favoured position of striker and scored one of his best goals for the club.

Windsor latched onto the ball 30 yards from goal, glided past three tackles, before rounding goalkeeper Kieran Plummer to tap the ball into the empty net.

Midway through the half Warminster once again took the lead, this time through striker Matt Dyer who latched onto a good cross into the box to fire his shot past Andy Windsor in goal.

Warminster held onto their lead until the 64th minute when a great through ball from Calne’s Russell Driver sent Stu Windsor clean through on goal and the striker prodded past Kieran Plummer in goal.

Once again this spurred Warminster into action and they regained the lead with 15 minutes to go when Matt Dyer was given too much time inside the box and his shot ricocheted past Andy Windsor into the net.

Nonetheless, The Eagles were not deterred and they equalised for a third time, after a sustained period pressure on the Warminster goal led to Stu Windsor completing his hat-trick with another composed finish.

Nevertheless, there was one final piece of drama remaining when James Collett struck his superb winning goal with two minutes left to settle this highly entertaining encounter in style.

Freshford United 2 Westbury United Reserves 3

ONE of the eye-catching matches of the opening day’s fixture programme was the one at Brown’s Park, Freshford where Chris Birleson’s villagers entertained Jason Edwards' Westbury United Reserves who, like their hosts, are expected to do well this season.

Westbury took the honours last term by picking up four from a possible six points and it was Edwards side who prevailed for a second successive match battled to a hard-fought but deserved 3-2 victory.

Both teams were missing key players for their opener but it was the evergreen Marc Lanfear who once again proved to be the undoing of the villagers, putting Westbury ahead and then doubling their lead before Freshford had the chance to get back in the game before the break.

But it wasn’t too be as a brilliant double stop from Westbury keeper Scott Armstrong saw him keep out a Steve Roddy penalty and then turn the follow-up out for a corner.

Armstrong who had a fine game between the posts was beaten early in the second half by Tom Rooney before Gary Tugwell lashed home a stunning free kick to restore Westbury’s two goal advantage, which became one when Chris Foley scored a second for the home team.

Freshford threw everything they had at Westbury looking for an equaliser and had it not been for the impressive Armstrong they may have got a third, but the keeper was equal to anything that came his way as he denied Freshford on numerous occasions to earn his team victory.

Semington Magpies 2 North Bradley 4

AN UNDRESTRENGTH North Bradley travelled to Semington Magpies looking to open their season with a convincing win over Ricky King’s side.

Bradley may have triumphed 4-2 but the victory was anything but straightforward as Bradley had to overturn a 2-0 half-time deficit to claim their win.

Magpies went ahead when Ricky King playing his first ever game in goal hit a long goal kick that was headed into his own net by Bradley’s player-manager Chris Carr.

Things got worse for Bradley midway through the half when Dan Rimmer scrambled the ball home at the far post to double Magpies advantage but their dreams of a shock victory turned into a second-half nightmare as Bradley hit four unanswered goals to claim the points.

Reuben Spong started the comeback when he scored from the penalty spot.

A neat finish from Scott Askew drew Bradley level before Askew was dragged down in the box which led to Spong tucking away his second penalty of the match to put Bradley 3-2 in front and Bradley wrapped up the win thanks to another well taken goal by Askew.

Steeple Ashton 1 Bradford United 0

IN WHAT was the preverbal game of two halves a solitary strike from Guy Rowley earned Neil Taylor’s Steeple Ashton a 1-0 victory over Bradford United on their return to the first division following relegation at the end of the 2011-12 season.

Ashton bossed the first half and were well worth their 1-0 lead which Rowley gave to them on seven minutes.

The second period belonged to Bradford who knocked on the door on a number of occasions but were unable to find a way through despite both Max Bougard and Phil Little going close for the Bradfordians and this was after Rowley had missed a second half penalty for Ashton which luckily for the striker didn’t come back to haunt him.

Trowbridge Wanderers 3 Castle Combe 2

AFTER suffering a 3-0 loss to Castle Combe towards the end of the last campaign, Paul Doddington’s Trowbridge Wanderers side would have feared the worst when the teams clashed on the opening day of the new season.

But the Lambrok Road-based side were showed what they were lacking for much of the previous campaign as they dug deep and fought their way to a 3-2 win.

Nigel Penelhum was the star of the show for Wanderers scoring all three of their goals, His first came in the first half to give his team the lead, but his opener was cancelled out by Carl Dawson’s equaliser that took the teams in at the interval locked together at one apiece.

Penelhum regained the lead for the home team before he completed his hat-trick to give them a 3-1 lead.

Will Gale reduced the arrears for Castle Combe but it wasn’t enough as Wanderers held out to avenge their 3-0 reverse from April.

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