FOLLOWING this weekend’s 2-0 win at home to Odd Down, Melksham Town manager Kieran Baggs issued a strong warning against complacency from his side.

Mike Perrott put the hosts ahead at Oakfields when he slotted home following some good work from Joe Stradling.

Stradling then went from provider to scorer in the 70th minute as his sixth goal of the campaign sealed progress in the Les Phillips Cup.

The win came after a defeat in their match with Chippenham Town in the Wiltshire Senior Cup last week, and with a Premier Division fixture with Cribbs waiting for them on Saturday, Baggs believes it was a timely victory for his troops.

“It was good to bounce back after Tuesday, although when you go to Chippenham Town in the Wiltshire Senior Cup, you are expected to lose,” he said.

“The performance was good, but it still goes down as a loss so the last thing I wanted was to go into a big game with Cribbs at the weekend after having two losses.

“It’s not good for morale, so to get a good comfortable win on Saturday was good, but I said to the lads the performance has got to improve for (this) Saturday.

“We got a little bit complacent in recent weeks so I let them know before the game and at half-time as well.

“Saying that, I don’t think Odd Down had a shot on goal in the whole 90 minutes so credit to the defence for that.”

Defensively, Melksham have been immense in recent times, something which has earned goalkeeper Rob Brown the Toolstation League Safe Hands award.

The 23-year-old has kept a remarkable seven clean sheets in his last nine outings for the club and the Melksham manager believes the man between the sticks is only going to get better.

“Rob fully deserved that award and if you spoke to him he’d say about how good it has been playing with the back four,” he said.

“He has pulled off some great saves to keep us in some games. He’s been at the club a long time now and he has always had the potential.

“I think recently he’s started to mature a little bit, his organisation and communication has improved since the start of the season.

“He’s growing up into a proper bloke now, he’s only young and the more he plays the higher up the leagues he will play.”