ALAN Griffin admitted there were a few signs of rustiness as Malmesbury Victoria returned to action for the first time in three weeks with a 4-0 win at Devizes Town Reserves.

Vics have seen their last two fixtures called off due to the wet weather and were slow out of the blocks at Nursteed Road.

Devizes were on top of proceedings and Malmesbury were fortunate to find themselves ahead at the break courtesy of Josh Hughes’ strike.

The goal seemed to galvanise Griffin’s men and further efforts from Joe Thornton, Chris Salt and Jake Fortune in the second half gave the scoreline a one-sided feel.

“It’s been pretty wet so we haven’t been expecting to play in the last few weeks. It was nice just to get out there and have a game again,” said boss Griffin.

“In the first half they were better than us. They played pretty well. They had some good young lads who caused us a few problems but we got a goal and went in 1-0 up.

“Then in the second half we were by far the better side and it was a pretty comfortable win in the end."

“At half-time I said to the lads ‘we’ve had a break and now we’ve had 45 minutes to get back into it – now we need to kick on’. I think we needed a bit of a workout in our legs and after that we were very good.”

League leaders Trowbridge Town saw their game at home to Royal Wootton Bassett Town Reserves postponed, as was second-placed Shrewton United’s clash with Wilts Calne Town.

That helped Malmesbury solidify their position in the top three, as did a 4-2 defeat for Melksham Town Reserves at their Corsham Town counterparts and a 1-1 draw for Ludgershall Sports at Marlborough Town.

Griffin added: “There were a few results that went our way at the weekend.

“From now until Christmas we have got three away games and one at home and we have to try to get maximum points to help our push for promotion.

“We have played nearly half of our league games already so if we are there or thereabouts towards the top of the table at Christmas hopefully it will make it easier to keep winning games afterwards.”

Bottom side Sarum Youth remain on a single point after going down 3-1 at home to Wroughton, while there was a third postponement – Trowbridge Wanderers’ trip to Vale of Pewsey.