MELKSHAM struck a blow in the battle of the Dorset & Wilts One North promotion hopefuls as they downed hosts Minety 20-14.

Missing eight regular first team players due to injury and unavailability, the villagers fell behind to Melksham forwards’ try in the fifth minute as Aaron Brailey touched down.

The second-placed visitors doubled their lead in the 27th minute with a pushover try from Charlie Radcliffe.

Minety held their own at lineout and in the scrum and began to exert their own pressure.

Despite being penalised heavily at the breakdown, they ended the half strongly, with the pack led by captain Andrew Hibbard, although Melksham managed a third try in the 33rd minute when a break out saw Alex Bound touch down.

Minety lost James Stuart, Kieran Gash, Ben Scott and scrum half Will Mason to injuries at the start of the second half and gave a season debut to ex-academy player Josh Bull.

The breakthrough for Minety came in the 69th minute as throw-in was collected by Bull and led to a forwards’ drive and although hooker Tom Claxton was tackled on the line, impressive flanker Harry Neal stole the ball to score.

Melksham restored their lead with a try wide out on the right before Minety struck back with the final score of the game with just minutes to play.

Robin Greenway, making only his second appearance for the first team this season, broke through the line and passed to Bull, who raced through to score under the posts.

Coach Andy Ward said: “We knew that this was going to be a really tough match. With over half a team unavailable we had to dig deep and ask second XV players and Academy lads to step up and they did a magnificent job.”

Melksham skipper Callum Hurn said, “We expected them to come back at us in the second half so we tried to build points on them.

"We studied how they played us in the first half to combat the pitch advantage and used that home knowledge against them in the second. It was a solid performance from the team against strong opposition.''