Pilot take off (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Pilot take off

5:29pm Monday 5th February 2007 in Football By Gazette Sport Reporter

AFC PILOT continued their good run of form with a 3-0 victory over Corsham Park Rangers at the Beeches, Shaw, which leaves them just two points behind Division Three leaders The Southgate Inn, who were in cup action.

Pilot dominated the opening stages but had to wait until the 20th minute when Lee Jackson's low drive from 20 yards went in the bottom left hand corner.

Pilot continued to pressure the Corsham defence and after some great link-up play Greg Wilmot extended the lead with a neat lob after 35 minutes. The second half was a similar affair, with Pilot having numerous chances but being wasteful in front of goal. The result was put beyond doubt after 68 minutes with some great work on the left hand side by Lee Jackson resulting in a low cross that was put away confidently by Chris Bishop.

Sir Audley's Arms made it four wins in succession after they defeated Westbury Rangers B 3-0 to stay in third place. Craig Manley scored twice and Sam Legg-Bagg once.

Cooper-Avon crushed Blue Circle (Sunday) 8-1 but it could have been a lot more had the Circle's goalkeeper Ryan Marks not been brilliant between the sticks. Simon Gillatt scored four of the eight goals, with Simeon Mills, Paul Walker, James Ponsford and James Worsley scoring one each for the tyremen who saw a welcome return to form after last week's blip in the cup.

White Hart Combe and Wheatsheaf FC shared six goals and the spoils after Combe battled back from being three goals down to claim a 3-3 draw.

Wheatsheaf looked to have exorcised the ghosts of their previous cup exits when they raced to a three goal lead. Rob Lymath's precision shot put them one up after 11 minutes and after 17 minutes the score was doubled after good work from Craig Lovesey and Gavin Cox resulted in the latter crossing to Graeme Neale whose half volley made it 2-0.

After 30 minutes more good build-up play saw Mark Smith cross to Neale who produced a clinical finish to make it 3-0.

What should have been a walk in the park from then on resulted in disaster for Wheatsheaf as they allowed Combe back into the game after 41 minutes when Jamie Farquharson reduced the arrears. Ten minutes into the second half Wheatsheaf's lead was cut even further when they failed to clear a corner and the ball fell to Paul Hussey who slammed it home through a crowd of players.

On the hour mark Combe were back on level terms courtesy of a bullet header from Hussey which made it 3-3. Combe thought that they had won the game when James Stone scored but their celebrations were cut short as the goal was ruled out for offside.

Pack Horse Rangers beat Somerford FC 4-2, which could have been more had it not been for the villagers' goalkeeper Chris Simpkins who had a fine match.

Rangers started brilliantly and they were 1-0 up early on through Phil Clark. Shane Bell's sublime strike made it 2-0 before Chris Yeo's penalty for Somerford brought them back into the game, but not for long as Sean Rushmore somehow turned home a Johnny Crogan corner. A defensive lapse gifted Jason Lovell Somerford's second goal which led to a few anxious moments for Rangers before another Crogan corner led to Bell making the final scoreline 4-2 when his neat header found the target.