GARETH Evans was Melksham's hero on Saturday as the goalkeeper produced three point blank saves to earn his side a point.

The result means Melksham drop down a place to 16th in the Screwfix League Premier Division and manager Nigel Tripp admits he was disappointed with the result.

He said: "They are the sort of games we have to look at winning, especially in our position in the league at the moment.

"The draw was a fair result on the day but looking back on it we should have been pushing for more than a point.

"They had three good chances that our keeper saved and we had three chances that we missed the target with."

After a quiet opening it was Barnstaple who began to get on top and on two occasions they split the home defence only for Evans to deny them from point blank range.

Melksham's best effort of the half came when Adie Stagg fired wide but it was Barnstaple who finished the half the stronger and Melksham had another let off when Kevin Squire's shot hit Evans and rebounded to safety.

On the stroke of half-time Evans came to the rescue again with another fine save.

Early in the second half, substitute Owen Bryan set up Gary Banks for Melksham but he volleyed over from eight yards.

Barnstaple then exposed Melksham's defence again only for Evans to deny them twice within a couple of minutes.

In the closing minutes Melksham's Brian Kayll headed just over as they nearly grabbed all three points.