MELKSHAM Town chief Darren Perrin was chuffed to see his side discover their killer instinct as they crushed 10-man Hallen at the Conigre on Monday evening.

After the visitors had their goalkeeper sent off for bringing down Dave Thompson in the area with just a few minutes on the clock, Perrin’s men went for the jugular and soothed the pain of their controversial defeat at Odd Down on Saturday.

Dan Kovacs fired home the resultant penalty from the Hallen goalie’s challenge before helping himself to three more goals, with Gary Higdon also notching, whilst youngster Will Thomson came off the bench to net his first competitive goal.

“Sometimes we’ve struggled playing against 10 men but it was good to see that we were ruthless and made up for the chances we missed in the FA Cup (against Cowes Sports last week) and Odd Down,” said Melksham manager Perrin.

“Their goalkeeper was sent off after about three minutes and we just carried on from there.

“Three wins from four games is quite a good start and we’re very happy with that. Now we can relax and look forward to playing Willand on Saturday.”

Following Saturday’s 1-0 loss at Odd Down, Perrin was in a much less chipper mood after Ashley McGrane’s last-gasp winner left him seething.

Perrin said: “At the end of the game, Leigh Rogers has been badly fouled by their player, who has been booked.

“He was injured, so had to come off the pitch, which I have no problem with because it’s part of the rules.

“We’ve put the free-kick into the box and they’ve cleared it and we’ve shouted at the referee: ‘can he come back on, can he come back on, can he come back on?’.

“They’ve gone up the other end and scored and we’ve gone absolutely ballistic. After the game, the referee has apologised to us because he forgot that our player was off the pitch.”