NEW Melksham Town boss Dave Clayton believes his side’s victory over their local rivals Westbury United was more important than their FA Vase giantkilling antics last week.

Melksham sprang a surprise by beating Southern League outfit Wells 2-1 to make it through to the second round proper of the Vase but Clayton, whose appointment with Justin Messenger was confirmed the day before the Westbury game, was pleased to see his side get off to a perfect start under his tenure.

“Melksham won’t win the FA Vase – we might get through a few more rounds but my main concern is trying to get the club out of the first division,” he said.

“That’s why the game against a hard-working Westbury team was more important than the win over Wells and the team did themselves no harm.

“A lot of the lads must have wanted to show me what they can do and they did very well.”

Beau Blakeman went close for Westbury early on, but Melksham’s Dave Percival fired the opener before Dan Kovacs headed in on 35 minutes.

United’s Simon Millard saw a goal ruled out for offside before Gary Higdon rounded off the scoring.