Calne Town 2, Devizes Town 0 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Calne Town 2, Devizes Town 0

6:51pm Saturday 2nd February 2008 in Football By Jon Boyle

Daniel Lardner's long range wonder-goal helped Calne defeat local rivals Devizes to progress to the semi-finals of the Wiltshire Senior Cup on Saturday.

The midfielder lobbed Devizes goalkeeper Paul Thompson with a stunning half-volley from fully 40 yards just 90 seconds into the match and had a hand in substitute Jan O'Meara's late clincher.

The defeat was perhaps a little harsh on Devizes, who had dominated for long spells on a wretched pitch but were made to pay for some toothless finishing in this third-time rescheduled quarter-final tie.

Lardner controlled the ball on the edge of the centre circle before launching an audacious strike over the back-peddling Thompson to put Calne ahead in only the second minute.

Adam Giles should have equalised for Devizes soon afterwards but, after racing onto Rob Mitchell's pass and shrugging off Calne skipper Steve Casey, he blasted the ball over the bar with only the keeper to beat.

Devizes captain Darren Robison's 25-yard free-kick was tipped over the bar by Calne goalkeeper Steve Allison as the visitors piled on the pressure, before Danny Baker's 22-yard volley was well saved by Thompson at the other end on the stroke of half-time.

Devizes continued to press after the break but Mitchell's looping 12-yard header from Josh Digby's deep cross looped just over the bar, before Lardner's rasping volley was well held by the diving Thompson at the other end.

Giles missed another golden opportunity to equalise in the 69th minute when Craig Townsend's blocked shot span kindly through and put him one-on-one with the keeper, but Allison saved his curling 16-yard strike at full-stretch.

The frustrated visitors huffed and puffed but lacked the guile to unlock the stubborn Calne defence towards the end, and O'Meara struck on the counter-attack to double the hosts' lead with eight minutes remaining.

Ben Moore raced clear onto Lardner's well-weighted through ball and, after Thompson had saved his initial shot, the unmarked O'Meara was on hand to ram in the loose ball.