Melksham Town v Marine Review

Melksham Town v Marine Preview:

We enter the Wiltshire Premier Shield on Tuesday evening, with a trip to fellow Southern Leaguers, Melksham Town, who are managed by former Marine manager Mark Collier, kick off is 7.45pm.

Supermarine take a break from league action on Tuesday evening when they head to Melksham Town in the Quarter Final stage of this seasons Wiltshire Premier Shield, and Head Coach Stuart Fleetwood is relishing the opportunity to get some game time to the limited members of his squad who haven’t been playing recently – ahead of another tough league fixture at Hendon this coming Saturday.

With two league wins sandwiching a draw in their last three outings, confidence in the Marine camp remains on the up, and speaking to fan based Supermarine Radio presenter John-Luke Morgan after Saturday’s game, he said: “I can get some minutes in the legs of some of the players who haven’t been playing in recent weeks so as I can get a look – we’ve got quite a small squad so a lot of players will have to play in that, but it’s another opportunity to win a game of football.”

Indeed it is – and more importantly, if Marine can overcome the challenge from their hosts, it will get the side one step closer to lifting some silverware at the end of the season.

It’s a big ask however, as Melksham are in a similar position and enter the tie on the back of a narrow 3-2 defeat to Cribbs, and more recently two decent draws – the first a 0-0 at Willand Rovers and 2-2 at Bemerton Heath Harlequins – both of whom currently sit in the playoff places.

So they certainly have the ability to graft hard in games and earn points. Their last victory ironically came in the Wiltshire Premier Shield when they etched out a convincing 8-3 victory over Laverstock & Ford 8-3 at home on Halloween in Round 1 so we’ll expect another strong opposition come kick off.

Melksham currently find themselves sat in 14th place in Division one on 16 points, with 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats from their 12 games and have scored and conceded 17 goals so far.

Leading scorers:

Melksham Leading Scorer: Ben Brooks – 5 Marine Leading Scorer: Levi Irving – 6

Admission Prices:

• Adult - £10
• Concessions - £8
• U15s - £2

Other Matches:

None – Salisbury have withdrawn from the competition so current holders Westbury United have been given a bye.

Coach Travel:

There will not be a coach travelling to Melksham.

Keeping up to date:

If you can’t join us at the game, you can follow the action via our official X account @SupermarineFC, where we will have regular updates throughout the match. We’ll have half-time and full-time updates on our Facebook page.

Match Highlights:

Match highlights will be available on Supermarine TV on Wednesday evening.