Kintbury Rangers crowned Wiltshire Senior League champions, expect Step Six promotion
Kintbury Rangers are officially Wiltshire Senior League champions.
They beat Salisbury Development 3-1 on Saturday to seal the title.
17-year-old Ollie Denner scored a brace as Kintbury received long-awaited confirmation that they had finally won the league.
Rangers certainly did it the hard way, having gone unbeaten for their first 27 games prior to their clash with Park United.
They had to win that game to seal the title, but instead ended up losing their unbeaten record.
They lost again in midweek against Letcombe, but finally got the job done on Saturday in business-like fashion, with Letcombe drawing elsewhere to end the title race.
“We were walking off the pitch and somebody came over to tell us,” reflected manager Chris Collin.
“Then we could have a bit of a celebration!
“Ollie Denner was absolutely fantastic for us… we gave him his chance and he took it.
“We knew we’d be up there, but I didn’t think we’d be that good, to have that run and be that consistent.
“The lads have all bought into what we do.
“Now I want to get to the end of the season and see if we can do the next three unbeaten.”
Kintbury took three goes to finally secure the title, something Collin was happy to reflect on.
“I think the pressure got to us a little bit,” he said.
“In both of those games we were punished for not taking our chances.
“We were very frantic.
“Maybe we weren’t experienced in seeing the game out.
“But we learned so much in those games.
“What’s your character like? Can we handle this pressure?
“It’s going to be like that on a weekly basis next season.”
Kintbury now expect promotion to Step Six of the non-league pyramid, having improved their ground to meet regulations.
“It’s full steam ahead,” he said.
“We had our final assessment last week and we believe we’ve passed.
“At the Letcombe game we had at least 170 people watching, so we’re making massive improvements.
“I’m already thinking about it… to be honest I was three weeks ago!
“I do think we’ll probably end up in the Wessex League.
“I’m cool with that, it’s a new challenge.”
