Salisbury 0-2 Melksham Town – Wiltshire Senior Cup Final, Wed. 27th April

Against all the odds, Melksham Town regained the Wiltshire Senior Cup with a 2-0 win over high flying Salisbury at Hardenhuish Park, Chippenham, in front of a crowd of 736, a majority of which were supporting Melksham.

The win now means Melksham have won the cup in three of the last four seasons. And it came against a Salisbury side managed by former Leicester City star Steve Claridge and already crowned Wessex League Premier Division champions this season.

Melksham opted to play up the slope and against the stiff breeze in the first period and this meant that they were forced to defend in depth against their talented opponents who were expected to win comfortably. The first clear cut chance came on 24 minutes when Salisbury’s Roberts latched onto a long ball over the Town defence but his effort was well saved by Town keeper, Rob Brown, who knocked his effort over the bar.

The Town defence stood up manfully to their task and restricted Salisbury to a couple of long-range efforts and as the half wore on, Salisbury’s sense of frustration became evident as their possession created little clear cut chances.

On 36 minutes Melksham’s Ian Jeffery became referee Sam Allison’s first caution of the game as he blocked off Roberts and the Town were happy to reach the interval at 0-0 and very much in the game.

The second period saw Melksham start well and Gary Higdon headed a Jeffery freekick over on 49 minutes, before the excellent Brown saved at full stretch from Kelly on 54 minutes.

Melksham’s Ben Thomson, Luke Ballinger and Mike Perrott all picked up yellow cards in a frenetic second period as Melksham hung on in the game.

However on 68 minutes Melksham took the lead when Joe Stradling guided the ball home from 10 yards after latching onto Michael Perrott’s blocked effort, much to the delight of the Melksham contingent.

The goal seemed to knock the wind out of the Salisbury sails as they sensed that Melksham were not going to lie down and let them have their own way and Melksham’s Ryan Bennett nearly poked home a second when Salisbury failed to deal with a Ben Thomson corner on 71 minutes.

With Salisbury running out of ideas, Melksham forged 2-0 ahead on 73 minutes with a goal from the top drawer.

Firstly Stradling won the ball back and laid the ball off to Luke Ballinger, who ran down the Town flank before crossing the ball into Gary Higdon, who brought the ball down in an instant and smashed a dipping volley into the roof of the net, much to the delight of the Melksham faithful.

Despite Salisbury hitting the underside of the bar in the latter stages, there was no way back and for only the third time this season Salisbury failed to score in a match, testament to the efforts and sheer determination of this Town side.

Town skipper Bennet joyfully picked up the Cup to add another piece of silverware in the Town trophy cabinet.

Town Cup Winners: Brown; Ballinger; Jeffery; Bennet; Maidment; Thompson; Stradling; Perrott; Higdon; Hulbert; Thomson, Subs Benison; Kovacs.

Reports by Mark Jeffery