Devizes Town 0 v 1 Ashton & Backwell United

Saturday 5th October 2019
Western League Division One
Nursteed Road, Devizes
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 252

Following the earlier game at Bradford Town, I joined the masses of groundhoppers in making the 15 mile, half hour journey eastwards to Devizes, for this Division One, arriving about half an hour ahead of this fixture kicking off at 4.45pm.

Nursteed Road is located down the end of a short lane from the passing main road, and admission taken at a booth, whether arriving by car or on foot, with ample room for parking inside the ground before reaching the football ground. Whilst the ground is rather basic and weathered, there is something beautifully rustic about it. The clubhouse is situated along one length, with some nice club signage posted on the outside, some modern, some more old fashioned, including what appears to be a manual scoreboard, although not in use today. Beyond the clubhouse, there is a tall building that more resembles what one would usually find on a farm, and hard standing is available along this length and behind both ends. A fairly old fashioned, but nicely spruced up, stand is situated straddling the half way line opposite the clubhouse, with four rows of wooden benches inside given a good elevated view of the action, and three terrace steps to stand on to the front. A tea bar is situated to the rear offering a decent range of hot and cold food and drinks, with a curry proving so popular amongst hungry hoppers that it soon sold out. The 28 page programme was well presented and a decent read, containing plenty of information to preview the match.

After losing their opening three league games, Devizes were unbeaten in their following four before today, and came into this game in 16th place in the 20 team division, having won two and drawn two of their seven league games overall. Ashton & Backwell United had won three and drawn three of their opening seven league games, and came into this game in eighth place in the table.

On a grey afternoon, although Devizes battled well, the visitors would surely have wondered how they were not in the lead by half time. On 9 minutes, a shot with the outside of the foot from the edge of the area came back off the right hand post, whilst on 19 minutes, a fabulous strike from the left wing sailed over the keeper but came back off the crossbar, and as the game entered stoppage time at the end of the first half, a goalbound header from a corner was blocked on the line.

However, it only took the visitors four minutes after the break to take the lead. A quick break was ended with a good tackle on the edge of the Devizes penalty area, but the ball broke free to an Ashton & Backwell to drill the ball past the keeper and into the net. There was plenty of huffing and puffing from Devizes, but they just couldn't find their way through to create any clear chances to get back on level terms, and indeed it was the visitors who came closest to scoring again, but one goal was enough to lift them to sixth place in the table, just two points adrift of the leaders, whilst Devizes dropped a place to 17th. Once again, the groundhopping masses beat a hasty retreat at the final whistle, with the final game of the day kicking off within about an hour, roughly 20 miles away at Warminster.