Brixham and Buckland Athletic have learned who they will play on the first day of the Western League Premier Division season when it kicks off at the end of next month. On Saturday, July 29, Buckland will be away at Clevedon Town, but for Brixham – who won promotion from the South West Peninsula League last season – it will be a home start at Wall Park with Falmouth Town their visitors.
For Brixham managers Tim Porter and Jason Couch, the Western Premier will be a big step up, but one they are looking forward to – and Porter says the two games against neighbours Buckland over Christmas and New Year will be especially exciting for the club. He even thinks Buckland are the favourites to win promotion, already calling them ‘champions elect’ before a ball is even kicked.
Porter said: “Anytime you play at home is always nicer than playing away – but with our home form in recent years it’s certainly where we would have wanted to start our campaign in the higher league.”
Falmouth were promoted to the same level last season and did well as one of the six Cornish teams in the division. Mousehole have won promotion to the Southern League – but St Blazey have replaced them, so there will be six again.
Porter said: “In fairness to Falmouth, they coped really well with making the transition last season, better than some other teams that have made the step up, so we’ll look at them as role models for how we’ll have to do. You obviously always look out for your local derby games, and for this season it’s going to be champions elect Buckland. They seem to be putting together an all-star cast, so it’s possible that by their visit to us on Boxing Day we could well be welcoming the champions to Wall Park!
“Those sort of derby games, as we found against the SWPL teams like Newton Abbot Spurs and Dartmouth recently, tend to be different than overall league form suggests. But we’ll treat it like any other game.”
Porter and Couch have been able to keep hold off all of the players from the squad that won them promotion – and any additions will be young players who are being given the chance to prove they are good enough to play in men’s football. Ben Aldous and Sam Bishop have joined from Torquay United’ youth team, while Ben Frankus and Charlie Stevens, both 16, will continue their progress.
“There will be potentially two or three others,” said Porter. “But it is tricky for us as we’ll be going into the lnew league with similar resources to those we had last season. While adding a couple of new young fresh faces, our aim is to keep everyone on their toes as we look to demonstrate what we are capable of.
“Pre-season has started well. We have had a good couple of fitness sessions attended by the lads. We’ll look to kick on now as we get to the end of July – before our games start on the first.”
