The Town travelled to Bristol based Hallen looking to maintain their slim lead at the top of the Toolstation Western League, and came away with the three points after a 4-0 success.
Town manager Darren Perrin made a couple of changes from the previous week’s starting line up with skipper Dave Thompson returning to the starting line up together with Leigh Rogers for Syeed Ibrahim and Shaun Benison respectively. Melksham’s Ben Thomson lined up against his brother Hallen, keeper Sam Thomson no doubt looking to take the bragging rights into Saturday night.
The Town started the game kicking into the breeze and both sides found it difficult initially to get to grips with the lively pitch and conditions.
The visitors’ first attempt of note didn’t materialise until the 15th minute when a Perrott run and shot ended with the ball running behind at the near post with the keeper untroubled.
However on 23 minutes Melksham took the lead with their first shot on goal when a Ben Thomson pass fell to the feet of Dan Kovacs, and the striker continued his rich vein of scoring by coolly knocking the ball home past keeper Thomson to put Melksham 1-0 ahead.
The goal brought the game to life and Kovacs followed this up with two further efforts which failed to trouble the home keeper, and at the other end Town keeper Rob Brown and his back four looked fairly comfortable dealing with anything the homeside could throw at them. The interval was reached with the Town holding onto a slender 1-0 lead.
Hallen started the second period well with Melksham being caught in possession on a couple of occasions, and Hallen’s Williams’ shot wide on 48 minutes and Thompson had to clear away a dangerous cross into the box on 50 minutes.
However on 53 minutes Melksham went 2-0 ahead when a Kovacs flick on found Higdon and the striker wasted no time in sliding the ball past the exposed home keeper. In the aftermath of the goal Davis picked up caution for the homeside.
The Hallen defence were now becoming stretched as Melksham broke quickly, and on 55 minutes Dave Thompson’s ball into the box was brought down by Kovacs, and as the striker looked to shoot he was brought to the ground by Hallen’s Reid who was shown the red card by the referee. Kovacs himself slammed home the penalty for his 11th goal in his last 11 games for Melksham to put Melksham 3-0 ahead.
On the hour mark with Monday’s home game v Gillingham in mind, Kovacs was replaced by Simpson, and on 75 minutes Thompson was replaced by Ibrahim.
To the credit of the home side they did not drop their heads and continued to try to get a consolation goal with Brown needing to be alert to keep out an effort from Andrews.
In the 83rd minute Higdon picked up the ball some 25 yards from goal and swivelled to smash in an unstoppable shot which beat the home keeper and put Melksham 4-0 ahead, much to the delight of son Keiran who could be heard from the stand congratulating his dad on his effort.
On 85 minutes Hallen keeper Thomson produced a fine one handed save to keep out a Perrott effort after good work by Simpson, and with only minutes reaming Melksham’s Fielding picked up a caution for a rash challenge. The full time whistle saw the Town pick up another three points in their quest for league honours.
• Town extended their lead at the top of the Toolstation Premier League with a 3-1 home victory against Gillingham Town in what was the last 1st team game under floodlights at the Conigre.
