Devizes Town 0, Keynsham Town 1 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Devizes Town 0, Keynsham Town 1

9:50am Thursday 27th November 2008 in Football

Devizes Town boss Shaun Moffat stood by his decision to field a team of largely reserve players, after watching his side exit a cup for the second time in two weeks.

After picking up a series of injuries in Saturday’s draw at Bideford, the manager and his co-boss Kevin Whitbread selected nine members of the club’s second string, including two under 18 players.

Moffat’s men will now have to focus on their improving league campaign for the remainder of the season, having also been eliminated from the Wiltshire Senior Cup by lower league Warminster Town last weekend.

“The game was very much an exercise,” he said.

“We took the decision to give our reserves a chance they deserved against better opposition than they are used to playing against.

“We never resign ourselves to defeat before a game but we can take a lot of positives from it and we pro- bably deserved to have won.”

As a sign of Moffat’s faith in his back-up eleven, the senior players in the side, Rob Drown and Charlie Lamb, were overlooked for the captain’s armband in favour of usual reserve skipper Ben Giles.

Keynsham scored the game’s decisive goal, past the impressive under 18 goalkeeper Martin Mitchell, with 15 minutes to go following a scrappy series of rebounds in the penalty area.

There was more joy for Devizes in the league on Saturday when they earned a point away at Bideford.

The game saw the return of Adam Giles following the birth of his daughter and he celebrated the new arrival by opening the scoring on the stroke of half-time from the penalty spot.

While the hosts equalised in the second half, Moffat was happy with his share of the spoils as Devizes stretched their unbeaten run to four games in the Toolstation Premier Division.

“A point was probably a fair result on the balance of play,” he said.

“We’re delighted though because they are a very good side, especially at home.”

Town will be hoping they can continue their impressive form this weekend against struggling Radstock, who have conceded 24 goals in their previous six league games.