HARD work in pre-season is starting to pay dividends for Warminster Town, who came from behind to defeat Sherborne Town in the Toolstation League Division One on Saturday.

Jake Wright came off the bench to score Warminster’s second goal with 11 minutes remaining, reversing Town’s one-goal deficit and instead turning a possible defeat into three points.

Wright’s strike came after Charlie Walton had equalised for the hosts, who have secured six points from a possible nine having played three matches.

While manager Andy Crabtree was encouraged by his side’s character to come from behind, the Warminster boss insisted chances must be taken in the future if his troops are to experience success this year.

He said: “We created a few chances and in fairness we should have got our noses in front.

“If you don’t take your chances you will get punished, and just that happened to ourselves on the break.

“It was a good goal for them, the lad tucked it away nicely.

“But then we displayed signs of character, something which I haven’t really seen since joining the club.

“When I first came here, heads would drop if we conceded first. But now we have a little more character about the team, there’s a bit more of a buzz.

“It takes time, but we’ve installed that. You can tell there’s some enthusiasm about the way we play.”

After starting the season with a disappointing away defeat to Chippenham Park, Crabtree’s men started to build some momentum when three second half goals against Calne earned Town a convincing 3-1 win away from home.

Crabtree pin-pointed a tough pre-season as the reason behind his side’s positive start to the year.

“Calne is a difficult place to go, and a win there helped the team learn,” said Crabtree.

“The end of last season was difficult, you could see the players had little confidence.

“That’s what we’ve tried to correct, and it appears to be working.

“Everybody is working hard and it’s starting to pay dividends.

“It’s early days but the signs are positive. They’ve worked hard in pre-season and that’s what you need to do if you’re to get something out of the league.

“A positive pre-season has put us in good shape.”

Justin Flowers praised the efforts of his defence after Corsham Town held firm at home to earn a point against Calne Town on Saturday.

Flowers’ troops went ahead in the first half before the visitors piled on the pressure in the second 45, denying the hosts any clear-cut chances on goal.

Stuart Windsor’s strike on 76 minutes levelled the game before Corsham resisted Calne’s late charge to add a further point to their league tally following an opening day win at Welton Rovers.

Despite holding onto a point, Flowers insisted it was the right result after Corsham peppered the visitors’ net with chances in the first half.

“I think it was a fair point for both teams,” said Flowers.

“We went a goal up and obviously from there we wanted to hang on, but they were a lot better in the second half.

“Once they scored, they were stronger.

“The pendulum shifted in their favour, so for us to hang on and earn a point was good to see.

“We’ve only played two games, but we can already tell that it’s a strong league.

“We won our first game which was great for us.

“Four points out of six is a good start for us. We’ve put a fresh team together and they’re starting to feed off of each other which is good to see.”

A new-look Corsham side look set to improve as each week goes by, according to Flowers – who admitted game time is the only element he feels his side are behind on.

Having drafted in a host of fresh faces over the summer, the Corsham boss now feels his team are starting to gel and form key partnerships on the pitch.

He said: “Everyone is buying into what we’re trying to do. Everyone is onboard with our ideas and how we’re trying to play.

“Now what we need is game time, hopefully the club will get better as games go on. But right now I’m happy with what we’ve got.

“The lads just want to play. Wincanton this weekend will be a tough fixture, they have the same amount of points as we do at this early stage.

“But we’re at home and we want it to be tough for teams that visit us.

“We’ll make it tough for them.”