Who May We See In The Pitching In Southern Football League in 2023/24? (Western League)

A look at who may become members of the league next season from the feeder leagues.

Obviously, the Football Association’s National League System Committee will have the final say on who goes where in the summer and one or two of the following clubs may not end up in the Southern League.

And in some cases, it also may depend on ground gradings being suitable.

However, these are the team’s best placed to be promoted to the league as it stands today.

Western League

It’s a two-horse race for the Premier Division title between Saltash United and Mousehole.

Easter results saw Mousehole take over leadership from Saltash, whose game on Easter Monday was postponed, but there is only one point separating the teams with three matches remaining.

Both came up together from the South West Peninsula League at the end of the 2020/21 season.

Saltash finished fourth in their first season at Step 5 level and this season have already guaranteed themselves a top-two finish and at least a promotion play-off.

The Ashes have some experienced players in their ranks, several of whom are dual-registered with the likes of Pitching In Southern League Premier Division South side Plymouth Parkway.

One of them is big striker Adam Carter, who has 20 goals in 26 matches for Saltash this season to date.

Now 35, Carter holds the record for the all-time top scorer in the South West Peninsula League and has won the league’s `golden boot` three times consecutively between 2011 and 2013.

As well as Parkway, Carter has also been with Bideford AFC, Tiverton Town and Bitton AFC.

Also on dual terms with Parkway and Saltash is goalkeeper Jordan Duffey.

However, Duffey has been an almost ever-present with the Ashes this season, making 37 appearances.

The 21-year-old originally joined the Ashes in the summer of 2022, having been on the books briefly at South West Peninsula League Premier Division West side Bodmin Town after leaving Parkway.

He originally signed for Parkway in July 2021 from another SWPL side, St Blazey.

After starting out at Championship side Cardiff City, where he became a regular in the under-18s, he went on to have spells with Dobwalls and Wadebridge Town.

Striker Mike Smith returned to Ashes at the beginning of the 2022/23 season and has 14 goals to his credit this season.

The 27-year-old last played for Saltash in 2020 after leaving the Royal Navy in pursuit of regular football.

He was part of the Parkway side who won the South West Peninsula League title in 2017/18 and has experience playing in the Western League.

Harrison Davis is another former Plymouth Parkway player to have made the move to Saltash.

The defender has chipped in with 10 goals from 30 games to date for the Ashes, having previously been with Truro City.

Saltash recently lost one of its most experienced players when defender Mike Landricombe, brother of striker Levi, left to join Southern Division One South side Tavistock.

The 34-year-old became the first player to follow former Ashes joint manager Shane Krac to Langsford Park from Waterways Stadium since his move just before Christmas.

Landricombe joined Western League Premier Division outfit the Ashes from Plymouth Parkway earlier in the season.

Whoever finishes the season as champions will be promoted automatically to the Southern Division One South.

If they finish in second place, they will face an away Step 4/Step 5 play-off match on Saturday, 29th April against a third or fourth-bottom team in the league above to decide which of the two teams will play at Step 4 next season

Mousehole missed out on their first opportunity to take top spot from Saltash in the Premier Division on Good Friday after falling to a 2-0 derby day defeat at Helston.

Title rivals Saltash were without a fixture, so this was one of Mousehole’s games in hand, but two goals at the beginning of the second half saw them suffer just a second league defeat of the campaign.

It was Teigan Rosenquest who opened the scoring for Helston after 57 minutes, and then with their next attack on goal, Sam Carter also found the back of the net to give the hosts bragging rights.

On Eastern Monday, there was a big result at Trungle Parc where Mousehole beat Clevedon Town 2-0 to move to the top of the table.

With Saltash’s game among those lost to the weather, the Seagulls took full advantage and have grabbed a one point lead with three fixtures remaining, thanks to a hard-fought home victory.

The only goal that separated the sides at the interval came courtesy of Mark Goldsworthy in the 24th minute.

That was how it stayed for the remainder of the 90 minutes, with the game always on a knife-edge, but then in the 6th minute of stoppage time, Jack Calver curled home a free-kick to put the game to bed.

Youth team product Hayden Turner tops the goalscoring charts for Mousehole with 26 goals from 35 games.

Mousehole signed prolific marksman Mark Goldsworthy in November 2020 from rivals Helston Athletic, where he had been captain, and he has contributed 13 from 29 games this term.

Goldsworthy notched up his 300th South West Peninsula League goal early in the 2019/20 season, in two spells with Helston Athletic either side of a stint with St Austell, putting him among the county’s all-time record scorers.

He went on to play an important part in Helston’s record-breaking 24-match winning run in the 2019/20 campaign, before the season was ended prematurely in March.

Up to that point, he had already netted 34 league goals, as well as another 5 in the cup competitions, and was well on the way to adding to his unique tally of four consecutive ‘golden boot’ awards.

He was also the top scorer in the Kernow Football Alliance’s build-up to the (subsequently postponed) CONIFA World Cup in 2019/20.

Mousehole have an experienced goalkeeper in Ollie Chenoweth, who signed for the club in October 2021.

The now 31-year-old had been playing for South West Peninsula League side Bodmin Town, but has vast experience at much higher levels during his career.

He featured for Plymouth Argyle, making his senior debut in a League Two game against Morecambe, before loan spells at Frome Town and Truro City, featuring alongside Seagulls’ manager Jake Ash in his time with the White Tigers.

Since then he has appeared locally with permanent spells at Bideford and Truro, as well as turning out for his home-town club Liskeard Athletic and at Bodmin.

He has also featured alongside several of the Mousehole squad in the Kernow FA team and played in an 8-1 win against Cascadia.

In June 2019, Mousehole appointed Jake Ash – one of Cornwall’s best known, most respected, experienced and successful footballers – as their new manager.

Starting his senior football career at Falmouth Town, the versatile defender joined Truro City in 2005 and later became their long-standing captain.

He was a member of Cornwall’s most successful-ever football team, winning the FA Vase at Wembley in 2007, and achieving five promotions in six years with the White Tigers - still a national record.

More success was earned when Ash led Truro to promotion into the Vanarama National League South.

He joined the Peninsula League’s most trophy-laden club Bodmin Town, although his appearances were curtailed by a lengthy injury.

For the last ten years, Truro-based Ash has been Head of Football Development at Penryn College as well as the West Cornwall Schools District programme, during which time the various age groups under his leadership have achieved notable success both locally and nationally.