MATT Jenkins was Calne Town’s firecracker as he scored twice against former club Corsham Town to help his side claim the derby spoils on Friday night.

A nearby fireworks display meant that the two sides, who moved their clash to a Friday evening in a bid to push a hearty crowd through the door at Bremhill View, were effectively welcomed onto the pitch in spectacular style.

Calne got off to a shaky start and fell behind in the first half but Simon Gardner’s men dragged themselves into the ascendancy after the break, with Jenkins getting one over his own side as the Lilywhites ran out 2-1 winners.

“There were fireworks display going on over at Beversbrook and it turned out that they were going off right about the same time the match started, which was very exciting,” said Calne manager Gardner.

“We had 150 fans through the door and I have to say thanks to Corsham for agreeing to play on the Friday – we’ve spoken to other teams in the past and they’ve not been interested in playing on a Friday.

“It was all Corsham to start with and we couldn’t deal with their energy. I thought it would be the other way around to start with but we didn’t have enough passion for the battler.

“But in the second half, we stepped things up and got the win.

“Matty Jenkins was playing against his old side and we trying a bit too hard in the first half, flying into tackles and things like that. But he relaxed in the second half and could have got a hat-trick.”

Visitors Corsham took the lead with less than ten minutes on the clock, Sam Ockwell’s strike deflecting off two defenders and wrong-footing keeper Steve Allison.

But following a goalmouth scramble in the second half, Jenkins nodded in to level matters before Corsham went down to ten men when Ant Brown was shown a straight red card for bringing the Calne forward down.

Jenkins then sealed all three points for the hosts seven minutes from time when he controlled George Bettles’ delivery before smashing home.

“Matty Jenkins has come back to haunt us but I didn’t think that he really did anything in the first half because it was all us,” said Corsham boss Trevor Rawlings.

“I was really disappointed with the goals we conceded – for the first one, the ball has bounced four times in the penalty area before Matty’s headed it in.

“I thought that we had covering players when Ant Brown got sent off but we didn’t do enough in the second half. It was disappointing.”