Almondsbury UWE 2-3 Melksham Town – Les Phillips Cup, Saturday 20th Feb

The Town travelled  to meet league one opponents Almondsbury  looking to secure a place in the quarter finals of the Toolstation league’s Les Phillips Cup.

This was a competition the club have traditionally found difficult to gain any real progress. However after a game played in near farcical conditions the Town secured a narrow victory and will now face the winners of Cribbs FC or Cheddar FC in the next round later in the season.

Melksham made a couple of changes from last week’s line up with Ash Barnett and Dan Kovacs returning to the side, with this being Kovacs first outing since his sending off against  Bradford Town on Boxing Day, having served his three match suspension.

It became apparent in the opening minutes that the very strong winds blowing across the pitch would spoil any chance of a decent game of football, and it became a battle of attrition for both players and spectators, and particularly hard work for the unfortunate gentleman volunteering to return the match balls back into play.

It was the home side who started brightly and after nine minutes  were awarded a penalty after Town’s Fielding unnecessarily barged a home striker out of the play. However the Town were reprieved when keeper Brown’s outstretched foot saved the spot kick, a feat he also achieved when last facing a penalty kick at Barnstable recently.

However on 11 minutes Almondsbury took the lead when a long ball over the Town defence swirled in the wind catching out the Town back line, and as the ball ran free Black calmly slotted the homeside in front.

As both sides struggled to gain control Town’s Perrott picked up a caution for an untidy challenge on 24 minutes.

As the number of throw ins reached epidemic proportions Melksham finally got themselves back on level terms on 32 minutes when a pin point Ben Thomson cross was expertly headed home by Gary Higdon to make it 1-1.

With the half time whistle approaching, Almondsbury went back in front when some lax marking at a corner saw Lane head home from close range and the interval saw the homeside 2-1 ahead and sensing an upset.

The second period followed the pattern of the first and Melksham nearly drew level on 50 minutes when an Ibrahim freekick saw the ball carried on the gale force wind and force the home keeper to paw the ball away for a corner.

However Melksham did draw level on 53 minutes when another Thomson cross saw skipper Bennet head home from close range for the defenders 7th goal of the season to peg the scores level at 2-2.

Higdon headed a Thomson corner just wide of the post on 62 minutes before on 66 minutes the Town made their first change of the game when Keiran Baggs replaced Kovacs.

On 75 minutes Baggs made a telling contribution when his run and cross saw Higdon stretch at the far post to slide the ball home and put the Town 3-2 ahead, and the final change saw Forester introduced for Barnett in the latter stages.

The Town saw out the game without too many further alarms and progressed into the last eight of the competition.

To cap a good weekend for the club the Town’s reserve side beat local rivals Corsham Town 3-1 with goals from Tom Jones 2 and Jake Sainsbury to remain in 3rd place in the Wiltshire Premier League, whilst on Sunday the Town’s Under 18 gained a place in the Wiltshire Youth Cup final in April  by way of a 6-0 win over Swindon Supermarine thanks to 4 from Rhys Talmash and goals from Seth Wain and Alex Churchyard.

Next up for the first team is a midweek trip to Welton Rovers followed by a home fixture against league leaders Odd Down at The Conigre on Saturday 27th February.

• The rearranged  Wiltshire Senior Cup semi final v Bemerton Heath is to be played at Westbury on Wednesday 2nd March, 7.30pm ko, with right to face high flying Salisbury in the final in April.