A crowd of 4.984 (receipts £340), a record for the season, saw Trowbridge gain an impressive victory, though the margin of goals was perhaps a little unkind to Chippenham. Trowbridge's superiority once again lay in a powerful defence - the halves in particular - and the forwards showed a satisfying improvement in snapping up scoring chances. Chippenham's forwards were patchy and seldom got working with the swift, accurate understanding which has made its mark against so many teams this season. In fact, midway through the second half, when they faced arrears of 4-nil, Barclay was brought back to his old position of centre-forward, and James went full back. Altogether it was a luckless day for the visitors, who found Trowbridge in their liveliest form.
The first goal was scored in 19 minutes. Webb forced a corner off Titcombe, and the winger swung the flag kick close in and it looked though Harris had pushed the ball out from under the crossbar. Greenland was on the spot, however, and quickly had the ball in the net. Four minutes later Kearney blocked a stiff shot from Marshall, Lovesey had a similar shot smothered, and then the ball went to Hancock who beautifully positioned, sent a well-judged left-foot cross shot which beat Harris completely. Many corners were conceded hard-pressed Chippenham defence, but just before the interval the Town fought back and Abrahams shot over from an easy position. Then the ex -Trowbridge forward was going through when he was fouled and referee Thorpe was seen pointing to the penalty spot. James, however, shot hard and low to Vince, who saved, but could not hold the ball. With tremendous leap Vince smothered the ball just as James, coming in at top speed, shot out foot in his eagerness to make amends for his miss, but he injured Vince instead. This resulted in heated argument among some of the players, but Vince responded to the trainers' touch - and sponge -and resumed little the worse.
Chippenham showed considerable improvement for a long spells in the second half, and Abrahams, after beating Marshall, had bad luck with a well-placed shot which rebounded from the foot of an upright. Hams made splendid "swallow" save to scoop out a header by Haddon from Hancock's pass. James had glorious scoring chance, but shot straight at Vince, who made a number of excellent clearances under pressure. Then after 25 minutes of this half Trowbridge got going again through Haddon. The winger swept in and Boyd moved over to cover Grimason as the ball came to him. Harrison also left his goal but Grimason reached the ball a fraction before Boyd and kicked it obliquely past the centre-half and goalkeeper into the corner of the net. Straight from the restart, Webb swept down the home left, and from his centre Haddon scored a fourth goal. Then Barclay went into the Chippenham attack and after Vince had saved well from Abrahams, Barclay headed a goal from a long low pass. Ken Hulbert deserves a pat on the back for an excellent display.
Teams.
Trowbridge Vince: Hulbert. Sutherland, Lovesey, Tuck Marshall; Haddon, Greenland, Grimason, Hancock, Webb.
Chippenham Town: R. Harris; Titcombe, Barclay; Kearney, Boyd, Haycock; Hamilton, Harris, Abrahams. Davies.
Report from The Wiltshire Times
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