SWINDON Centurians chief Scott Canniford is keeping cool in regards to his side’s chances of success in the Swindon & District League this season after a 4-1 win away at Down Ampney kept them within a point of the top of the Division One table.

For the third weekend in a row, the wet weather decimated the planned schedule and only two league fixtures took place across the two divisions.

Although conditions at Down Ampney were far from ideal, Centurians were able to master them to stay in touch with table-topping Chiseldon.

Canniford’s side are now up to 19 points from eight league games this season – and have only dropped two in the seven they have played since having to forfeit their opener in controversial circumstances back in early September.

Although in flying form at present, Canniford says thoughts of Centurians putting together a promotion push will be kept on hold for the time being.

“We have been doing really well and we’re all really pleased with the start we have made,” said Canniford.

“We dropped three points in the very first game of the season without even playing.

“To be honest, we were a bit disappointed with the league over that.

“We have got five players who work at Honda, and on the Monday before the season started, their workers were called in to work on the Saturday.

“We gave the league five days’ notice that we wouldn’t be able to raise a team, but the rules are that they need to be given seven days’ notice.

“We didn’t have seven days’ notice ourselves, so it was a bit disappointing that we couldn’t just postpone the game.

“We’ve done really well since then, but we are not getting carried away.

“We have got a core group of about 12 or 13 players, so if we got a couple of injuries, it would really hurt us.

“Hopefully we can keep this run going until Christmas time and see where we are.”

Centurians were forced to come from behind to beat Down Ampney, trailing 1-0 early on before a brace from Brandon Page and a goal apiece for Carl Wyatt and Lewis Cholod sealed the turnaround.

Canniford said: “It was a really difficult game on Saturday and the conditions were far from ideal.

“We went 1-0 down but managed to get 2-1 in front by half-time. In the second half, we were in total control and managed to pull away.

“We deserved the win. It was a superb performance from everyone.”

The only other league match to take place was also in Division One and saw leaders Chiseldon edge to a 2-1 victory at home to Cricklade Town Reserves.

There were a handful of Swindon-based teams involved in the first round of the Wiltshire Junior Cup, with Redhouse leading the qualifiers after a thrilling 6-5 defeat of Swindon Supermarine Development.

Swindon AFC were 5-0 winners over Spectrum, while five was also a winning number for Blunsdon as they triumphed 5-3 at Minety.