Town’s promotion hopes dented but team will come back fighting

Friday 30th March. Toolstation Premier Div.

Melksham Town 0 Bradford Town 2

(called off at half-time)

Monday 2nd April. Toolstation Premier Div.

Cribbs 4 Melksham Town 2

Saturday 7th April. Toolstation Premier Div.

Street 2 Melksham Town 0

A FEELING of disappointment shrouds Melksham Town as back-to- back losses hurt their chances of promotion, but support from fans is keeping the hope alive.

The local derby between Melksham Town and Bradford Town on Friday 30th March, a highly anticipated match with both teams sitting in prime positions for promotion, was called off at half time due to poor pitch conditions after the torrential rain made the pitch impossible to play on.

Bradford Town were leading Melksham 2-0 before the stoppage.

Luke Ballinger, assistant manager for Melksham Town said, “We got away with murder, we were poor. We were saved by the rain and lucky that the ref decided to call off the match.

“We came to the game with no fight, which was very unusual for us, very uncharacteristic, it was very disappointing.”

The match has been rescheduled for Monday 23rd April with a 7.30pm kick-off at Oakfields.

Monday 2nd April saw an away game to Cribbs that did not improve the spirits of the team, with individual mistakes from Melksham causing eighth place Cribbs to earn a 4-2 win.

Luke continued, “The Cribbs game saw the team play with a bit more effort, but individual mistakes cost us and they went ahead one nil in the early stages. Luckily, we began fighting back and were given a penalty, taken by Gary Higdon, to even the score.

“Then, another individual mistake by the keeper, Rob Brown, saw him sent off and give a penalty away. I didn’t see the incident myself, but talking to other people they agreed with the ref’s decision to straight red card him. He shouldn’t be putting himself in the position for a referee to make that decision; you can’t afford that in a game and it really cost us.

“I was going to take Rob’s place, but it went to Lee Davidson who was subbed on for Jake Brown; he did an okay job. Half-time came and the start of second half started well as we fought back to 2-2 with another goal from Gary Higdon. However Cribbs hit us with the game ending in a disappointing 4-2 defeat.”

The next game on Saturday 7th April, saw another trip away, this time to top of the league Street, that saw new signing Jon Davies get in on the action.

Luke said, “Again, the Street match was disappointing, we just didn’t turn up and the individual mistakes were costing us again, meaning they could hit us on the counter and score within 7 minutes. We just weren’t creating any opportunities to hit back.

“New signing Jon Davis played but we just couldn’t get the ball to him so it was a pretty quiet game for him, but I’m sure there will be a lot more to come from him. Street managed to add a second in the last minute meaning another loss.

“As you can imagine, spirits are not great. We now need to win every game and bounce back. We aren’t out of the promotion race yet, but we haven’t made things easy for ourselves. But hopefully we can put the defeats behind us, come back fighting and put a good run together and see what happens.

“We have had some great support for the fans, so thank you to all who travel to watch us play, there is  large number of you and hopefully we can turn it around for our next match against Wellington and for the rest of the season.”

New signing!

MELKSHAM Town has announced a new signing, Jon Davies, who will play with the team until the end of the season.

A club statement said, “Melksham Town is delighted to announce that Jon Davies has signed for the club until the end of the season from Evo-Stik Southern Premier League team Frome Town FC. We welcome Jono to the club and hope he enjoys his stay.”

Chairman Darren Perrin said, “Absolutely delighted Jono has agreed to play until the end of the season and it’s a real coup for the club that we can attract this type of player.  a big welcome to Jono from all at Melksham.”

Jon played his first game for Town on Saturday 7th April against Street.