MELKSHAM Town FC’s start to the new season continues to ‘frustrate’ with the new team struggling to find its feet.
Following one win and three losses, Town sit in 18th place in the Southern League. But player-coach, Luke Ballinger, remains hopeful that once Town works through issues, such as player availability, the club will start to see better results.
Speaking to Melksham News, Luke said, “It’s only September, and we have a long way to go. We need to keep plugging away and keep working on fixing the current problems we have.
“It’s been a tough start – we have new players and player availability has been an issue – so we are never playing the same team. It’s been frustrating.
“But, we need to keep going, and we should start to get the results that we need, which will hopefully start this Saturday (14th September) away against Highworth Town.”
In the past fortnight, Town has played twice, once in the Southern League and again in the FA preliminary round. About their 3-0 league loss against Winchester City, Luke said, “It was a poor day all round. We just didn’t turn up with the right attitude – we weren’t prepared.
“We started sloppy and gave a goal away. And in the second half we conceded a goal almost straight away, and it was basically game over. It was a long battle from then until the final whistle – but we were never really in the game.
“We had people unavailable to play, which has been an ongoing problem – we need more consistency.”
Next up, Town faced Shepton Mallet at home in the replay of their FA Cup preliminary round clash, which ended with a one-all draw last month. This time round, Town lost 3-2, with a goal from Shepton Mallet at the 60-minute mark sending Town crashing out of the cup. “Again, similar to the Winchester game it was a poor performance,” said Luke, “we were very poor in the first half.
“In the second half we were very good for about 15 minutes and we were able to level the score at 2-2 with an own goal from Shepton and a goal from myself. But we gave another sloppy goal away, leaving a Shepton player unmarked.
“I could have scored a goal towards the end of the game to make it 3-3, but it wasn’t to be. Another disappointing performance all round.”
