Sat 14th Aug. Southern League Div One South Willand 3 Melksham Town 1
TOWN went down to an opening day defeat against Willand after a controversial sending off of Albie Hopkins.
Town were two goals down early on but had pulled a goal back on 40 minutes when Albie was dismissed trying to get the ball back for the restart.
“It was never a red card and the game changed on that decision,” said manager Richard Fey. “We were missing key players due to unavailability and injuries and had a long four-hour journey down to Willand and couldn’t have got off to a worse start.
“We gave away two poor goals and to be honest we looked pretty nervous for the first half hour.
“But the lads rallied really well and came back into the match and scored a great goal from new signing Jay Malshanskyj. One of their players then kicked the ball away and there was a bit of ruckus. Albie, who is a young lad who has never been booked before and hasn’t got a bad bone in his body, tried to get the ball back and got a red card.
“We didn’t know why, their players and fans didn’t appeal for the card. I spoke to the ref afterwards who said it was aggressive force but you see worse every week on TV. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen and it means we’ll lose Albie for three games.
“We had to play the whole second half with ten men but we were excellent; we created numerous chances and could easily have got something from the game before they grabbed a third in injury time.
“I can’t fault the lads for effort; our fitness levels were excellent and it was a good showing which bodes well for the season ahead.
“We know we can’t compete financially with some of the clubs in this league and with some of the money that’s sloshing around but we’ll put a team out every week that is competitive and will give 100%.
“As a club, we need to stabilise and build after everything that’s been going on over the last two or three seasons.
“We’ve got a young squad and an enthusiastic reserve team with some good young players; I’ve already brought a couple in who have done really well.
“There’s a great atmosphere in the changing rooms – really good lads that we are trying to develop. We’re building a team for the club with the average age of 22, which is really young for Southern League football.
“If we can finish mid-table it will be an unbelievable season. I would love to finish top 10 and I think that’s where we should be aiming.”
Town face a big game on Saturday against Shepton Mallet in the FA Cup who are top of the league above.
“That’s going to be a tough game against a very good side,” said Richard, “but we’ll be giving it a real go and I know the fans will get behind us.”
