THE football academy team at Wiltshire College Chippenham are currently riding high at the top of their English Colleges league table.

The squad of players, drawn from across Wiltshire, lead South Gloucestershire & Stroud College by two points in South West Category 3B with five games remaining, having defeated Weston College 5-1 in their last outing at the Stanley Park ground, Chippenham.

Their South Glos & Stroud College rivals do have a game in hand, but academy director and lecturer Mick Byrne said: “Basically, if we win our remaining games, I think we should win the league – and that will represent a great achievement.

“The other colleges we play against are sport specific and we also have a much smaller squad than the other colleges we play against.

“They’ve certainly been the most successful football academy we’ve had here, they’re a tight-knit group, they’ve bonded well, and it’s good to see that their academic work is also strong.”

The Chippenham academy team missed out on the chance of a double when they were edged out 3-2 by their closest rivals in the semi-finals of the cup, despite two goals from first year student Jamie Hall.

Chippenham still had their chances to take the tie to penalties, with Rory Davis and Kieran Tarrant both going close, but it wasn’t to be.

Byrne, an academy coach with Bristol Rovers, added: “It would have been nice to have made the final, they gave a good account of themselves, but now we’ve got to concentrate on the league and hopefully the lads can reap the success they deserve by finishing top.

“We’ll lose some of the second years next season, but we hope to see an influx of talent in September to keep up the strength of the academy.

“I also work with our lecturer, Bryan Smith, who is involved with the Swindon Town Academy, so our level of coaching is good and we have some fantastic playing and training facilities at Stanley Park.

“A lot of the lads play for local clubs, and we’ve also got a tie-up with Chippenham Town, which we’d like to develop in the future. They currently sponsor our football academy award, which is given out at the college’s celebration evening.”