The Town made the long journey to their Dorset rivals missing central striker Dan Kovacs who was injured pre season, but bouyed by the inclusion of new signing Mike Perrot, returning to his home town club after a spell at Paulton Rovers.
Other new signing Jack Morris had to settle for a spot on the bench which gave an indication of the depth of squad the Town have at their disposal.
Manager Darren Perrin was also able to utilise the experience of Mike Kilgour who had arrived in the close season to assist on the coaching side, so the Town arrived at Bridport with a sense of optimism although a realisation that this opening fixture would be a tough encounter.
The opening minutes saw the homeside take the game to Melksham and Town central defender Dean Flockton was called upon on a couple of occasions to make good blocks from dangerous looking efforts. On 17 minutes Melksham went ahead when from a Nick Ridout inswinging corner Perrot bundled the ball home from inside the six yard box to open his account for the season and put the Town 1-0 ahead.
On 20 minutes some indecision in the home defence saw the keeper adjudged to have picked up an intended back pass, and in the aftermath the home keeper picked up a booking for delaying a quick free kick. From the ensuing freekick Gary Higdon’s shot was well saved.
Bridport responded and Wise saw his 25 yard effort deflected by Flockton onto the post and behind for a corner. From the resultant corner Town keeper Drewitt produced a fine save to claw away a goal bound effort.
However the Town always looked dangerous on the break and on 35 minutes went 2-0 up.
Ben Thomson picked up the ball in midfield and floated a ball over the home defence into the path of Higdon and after taking advantage of the home keeper’s indecision his lob over the keeper was guided into the net by Nick Ridout. The Town comfortably held onto their 2-0 break until the half time break.
The first 20 minutes of the second period saw the homeside enjoy a greater share of possession as the Town were slow out of the blocks and lost all the momentum they had built up in the first period. However the Town defence stood firm with Flockton in particular excelling and repelled the Bridport strikers. Melksham’s Bennet saw his looping header drift over after getting on the end of a long freekick on 53 minutes.
Mid way through the second period Jamie Broom was introduced for Ridout and he had an immediate impact when latching onto a loose ball from a Higdon run to calmly slide home the ball into the bottom corner and register his first goal for the senior side and put the Town 3-0 ahead.
Higdon and Perrot went close to extending the lead whilst the lively Broom hit the post with another effort.
Stu Greener and Leigh Rogers both featured from the bench in the final quarter and Rogers went close with a long range chip in the final minutes.
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