By Brian Newlands Devizes Town manager: After talking up Brislington last week they had a tough game at Dawlish.

I fully expected them to come away with at least a point; instead they suffered their first defeat of the season by 4-1. The Devon side proved their early season form is certainly no fluke and must be taken seriously.

Paulton Rovers, one of the money sides, suffered a bad beating, 5-2 at home to lowly Barnstaple and really must be counted out of the championship race.

High expectations at the start of the season have now been replaced by just trying to salvage some pride. Paul Hirons, who is a decent guy, landed the plum job after taking Keynsham to promotion.

With a decent budget, he assembled a host of well known names around the Western League scene. This is alright in principle, but sometimes, as in this case, it definitely doesn't work.

My own opinion is you still need a decent base of local players at this level to get a team spirit. Hirons actually offered to resign after the weekend's defeat but the chairman supported him. This is very good to see as it would have been easy in the current climate of hire and fire just to get rid of him.

I see that Taunton Town Supporters' Club came up with a nice little windfall of nearly £9,000 for the club to spend on ground improvements.

This is to help the club to get their ground ready to meet Dr Martens criteria.

It certainly makes me think about the apathy of people in and around the town of Devizes

I have been manager here for nearly seven years and in that time it has always been the same people who have helped in and around the club.

Living locally and also working in the town, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of times I get stopped to be asked about the football.

A lot of the time this is by people I don't even know. I would like to take this opportunity to say some help would be welcome in and around the ground at any time.

I see other local sides and the interest certainly seems a lot more passionate than shown by the townsfolk of Devizes.

Overall, it was a good day for the Wiltshire clubs.

Chippenham maintained their position with a good 3-1 away win at Redditch and Melksham continued their revival with six points in the week with wins over Manor Farm and Odd Down. A good achievement.

Westbury also had a very good Saturday with an excellent win over sixth placed Elmore.

This continued in the First Division with Corsham having a good win 2-1 over Bitton, the winner coming from one of our old boys, David Kilmurray.

I was delighted for Warminster manager Andy Crabtree as his side gained a great 1-0 away win against high flying Larkhall.

We went to Bishop Sutton which on paper looked as we should gain the three points. However, with four regulars absent, it turned out to be a good point as we drew 2-2. Our performance to be honest was quite woeful and in my opinion we certainly were outworked by a young eager Bristol side.

It is one thing being outclassed as we were at Team Bath a while ago, but disturbing and upsetting watching your side getting outworked.

The game was memorable for a goal by our goalkeeper Paul Thompson.

With 93 minutes gone on the clock it was our last chance to get something from the game. A good free kick by Darren Tapper was headed in by Thommo from fully 15 yards out. It was certainly the best header I've seen by anyone this season and by going in where it hurts he certainly showed up some of our outfield players who didn't want to get their hair out of place at times.