Southgate keep winning (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Southgate keep winning

10:59am Monday 5th March 2007 in Football By Gazette Sport Reporter

PACESETTERS The Southgate Inn completed a 12th straight victory as they maintained their four point lead over the chasing pack at the top of the table.

Southgate crushed basement side Chippenham United RAOB 8-1. Julian Alexander led the way with four of the eight, Nick Taylor added two with Nathan Sheridan and Elliot Williams scoring one apiece.

Wheatsheaf FC moved into second spot after they beat Corsham Park Rangers for whom it was a case of after the Lord Mayor's show as they were unable to repeat the success of last weekend which saw they beat promotion hopefuls Cooper Avon 5-3. Wheatsheaf's 2-0 victory saw them extend their own impressive unbeaten run to seven matches but the game almost didn't go ahead after referee Mickey Hawkes failure to turn up resulted in them searching for a referee, in the end it was their landlord Kevin Iles who came to their rescue as he took over the whistle and proceeded to have a good game in the middle.

Mark Smith gave Wheatsheaf the lead on 12 minutes after good work from Terry Cox who delivered a great cross for Smith to scoop the ball home for his first goal for the club. Smith doubled his tally in the 88th minute with a 25-yard thunderbolt, which secured his teams 2-0 win.

Melksham based Cooper Avon returned to winning ways with a 5-2 victory over Somerford FC at the Conigre, the game which was abandoned after 80 minutes left the Melksham Town pitch in desperate need of repair ahead of their Monday night game against Welton Rovers in the Les Phillips Cup. Cooper went ahead through an unlikely source when their goal keeper Alex Shaftoe scored with a massive punt up field which beat his opposite number.

Alex Whitehall drew Somerford level before Simon Gillatt took over the show as he scored number two and three from the penalty spot for Cooper before he added number four as he completed his fourth treble of the campaign with a good finish. Alex Whitehall bagged another for Somerford but it was never going to be enough at Cooper's Graham Griffiths scored their fifth before the game finished early with the conditions rapidly going downhill.

AFC Pilot switched their game from The Beeches, Shaw to Stanley Park where they faced Sir Audley's Arms who led 1-0 after 45 minutes thanks to a Jamie Collier goal. As the teams lined up to start the second half the referee was forced to abandoned the game as a couple of Pilot players had allegedly decided they didn't want to continue in the poor conditions. The league will now wait on reports into the incident before making any judgement as to if the result will stand or if the game will have to be replayed.

White Hart Combe and Pack Horse Rangers battled out an eight-goal thriller that saw the honours divided as the scoreline finished 4-4. In tricky conditions both teams tried to play the best football that they could which resulted in an open game that flowed from end to end. White Hart took the lead early on thanks to a James Stone goal. Phil Clark levelled for Rangers when he was hand to tap home after Dan Jackson's initial shot had been well save by Combe's keeper Dan Quinsey Rangers response was quick and Justin Darby put they back in front prior to the half time whistle. Combe found Rangers keeper Del Llewellyn in superb form as he denied them time after time but he was unable to keep out Stone's effort, which led to the scores being levelled at 2-2. Rangers regained the lead one again when Sean Rushmore fired home from the penalty spot after Shane Bell had been bundled over. There was a lot of luck about Combe's equaliser as the unfortunate Chris Ferris sliced James Hearsay's shot past his own keeper.

For the third time in the game Rangers took the lead when Combes keeper Dan Quinsey dropped Sean Rushmore's free kick into his own net, but for a third time Rangers hit back to tie the scores and for second week running Lee Fernandez struck a contender for goal of the season when he rifled home a stunning long ranger strike to earn Combe their point.