Melksham Town 2, Backwell United 1

From the archive, first published Friday 28th Oct 2005.

KELVIN Highmore has made a second attempt to get Devizes Town's Nick Mooney to the Conigre as he bids to add some experience to his squad.

The Melksham Town boss admits his young side are still showing signs of naivety and he believes the addition Mooney would be an important acquisition.

Highmore was turned down by of Mooney in the summer but is confident his bid will be successful this time round.

He said: "Nick decided to stay loyal to Devizes in the summer and I respect him for that but from what I have heard he is now a bit unhappy there.

"He can play anywhere down the right wing and has bags of Western League experience. We know we still have work to do and adding experience is one thing needed."

Melksham progressed to the second round of the Les Phillips Cup on Saturday thanks to first half goals from Gavin Eyre and Simon Price but Highmore admitted their second-half display was woeful.

Backwell took the lead early on but Price immediately restored parity when he fired in the equaliser after good work from Dave Macey and Eyre.

Ten minutes before half time Eyre cut inside and fired what turned out to be the winner into the top corner of the net after Jamie Harrison and Macey had combined to create the opportunity.

After the break it was backs to the wall stuff for the hosts but some resolute defending ensured Melksham went into the hat for the next round.

Highmore said: "In the second half we came out, and that was about all we did do. Our performance was very poor, it was woeful in fact.

"I spoke to our chairman Mick Perrin afterwards and he said that second half was the worst he has seen us play and I could not argue with him. We were awful.

"Having said that we still won the game and they say it is a sign of a good team if they can win when they are playing badly. We dug in and managed to grind out a result."

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