Winterbourne 0-4 Melksham Town – Toolstation Premier Division, Sat. 7th Feb.

After the Town’s excellent midweek victory at Brislington, Melksham travelled to meet relegation threatened Winterbourne looking to eradicate memories of last years horror show at the same ground and to put the pressure on the chasing pack .

Again injuries meant the Town had to shuffle the pack with former manager Adam Young brought back into the side at centre back for his first Western League game since September 2013 and his 280th game in the black and yellow shirt. Omar Simpson ,Will Stead and Gary Higdon also regained their starting berths after not starting in mid week. As anticipated it took the visitors a while to adjust to the 3G playing surface and it was the home side who opened brightly with Towns full back Ibrahim in his 99th game for the club having to be alert to clear an effort from a corner after only 3 minutes.

On 10 minutes Town keeper Rob Brown produced a tremendous block from Vile who found himself clean through on goal to keep the sides level whilst in a swift counter attack at the other end Higdon’s pass found Stead who saw his near post effort turned behind for a corner.

On 15 minutes the Town players and supporters were bemused to see the referee fail to award a card of any description to the home keeper who handled the ball outside of the box and the resulting freekick was wasted.

Winterbournes Dunn picked up the first caution of the game on 32 minutes for a mistimed challenge and with both sides struggling to create any real clear cut openings it looked as if the interval would see the sides go in all square. However on 43 minutes a Benison ball over the top found Higdon who expertly brought the ball down and smashed his effort beyond the home keeper Murley to put Melksham 1-0 ahead,a lead they held onto until the break.

Winterbourne must have felt that they still had the opportunity to take something from the game but their hopes were dashed only two minutes into the second period when Higdon latched onto a ball from Perrott and as he was about to get his shot away was unceremoniously chopped down by Harding in the box leaving the ref with no option but to dismiss the central defender and award the Town a penalty.

Melksham striker Dan Kovacs calmly slotted home the penalty for his 8th goal in his last 8 games and completing a run of scoring in his last five starts.With 18 goals so far this season the striker looks well on target to beat his seasons best of 23 for the club in the previous season.

The homeside were up against it now and Melksham swept to a 3-0 lead on 54 minutes when Higdon (featuring in his 199th game for the club) crossed for Benison to volley home at the far post with Benison wheeling away to celebrate with his team mates which finds the winger running into form at the right time of the season after recently returning from a long layoff.

Winterbourne’s Knight headed wide when getting on to the end of a long cross on 57 minutes and on the hour mark Stead picked up a caution for kicking the ball away and was almost immediately replaced by Rogers to avoid any further possible action from the official.

On 65 minutes Bennet headed wide from a Perrott freekick and on 67 minutes Melksham went 4-0 ahead and put the icing on the cake when skipper Perrott slammed a stunning first time 30 yard drive into the top corner of the net .

On 78 minutes Perrott and Kovacs were withdrawn for Will Thomson and new signing Theo Selassie and Selassie nearly scored with his first touch after a mazy run and left foot effort which was hit straight at the keeper. The final whistle arrived with three points gained and a four point cushion for the Town at the top of the league albeit the chasing bunch have games in hand.

The end of season run in promises to be one of the most exciting for years with at least half a dozen sides in with a chance of winning the title and the coming months will no doubt see many twists and turns and with Melksham bringing their seasons goal tally to 94 goals in all competitions then they should not be dismissed from the running.