Sat 19th March. Southern League Div. One. Att: 217 Highworth Town 1 Melksham Town 0
FOLLOWING the impressive 1-0 win against Sholing (12th March), Town now faced their Wiltshire rivals in Highworth Town.
Despite being lower in the table, the hosts have a few games in hand on Melksham, so a win would be crucial if they wanted to finish above their rivals at the end of the season.
However, a suspension for Ryan Morgan meant Town were short at the back, so Albie Hopkins filled in along the back four and Dan McBeam was handed a start in attack.
Blue skies made it a lovely afternoon for football; however Town quite literally faced an uphill battle in the first half, with the slope being against them for the opening 45. That being said, neither side looked like threatening early on, and it wasn’t until late in the first half that Town got a decent scoring chance. Jay Malshanskyj flicked on for Sam Hendy to get in behind, but it was a tight angle, and the forward sent the ball just wide.
The first half certainly left room for improvement, and the second half started in the worst possible way for Rich Fey’s side; just two minutes after the restart Ollie Case headed in for the hosts to open the scoring. Town continued to apply pressure but without any real luck, Sam Hendy went close again but his effort was saved, before the ‘keeper just beat Luke Ballinger to the rebound.
Ultimately, despite a couple of half chances which were routinely saved, Highworth were able to see the game out relatively untroubled. It was a bad day at the office for this Town side who are struggling to find consistency of late.
Reports: Lewie Simmons