MELKSHAM Town bounced back to winning ways and moved within one victory of guaranteeing themselves a third-placed finish in the Toolstation Premier Division with a 3-1 success at home to Longwell Green Sports on Saturday.

Darren Perrin’s side had been beaten 1-0 at Oakfields by Gillingham Town on Easter Monday but returned to form at the first time of asking.

Melksham remain level on points with fourth-placed Buckland Athletic ahead of Saturday’s final league fixtures but know victory at home to Wells City will secure them third place as Town boast a far superior goal difference to their rivals.

Dave Thompson fired the home side ahead early on but Longwell Green were able to haul themselves level.

Melksham raised their game again, though, and Jake Hiscocks restored the advantage before Thompson bagged his second goal to seal the win for Perrin’s men.

“I was really pleased with the result and it probably should have been a little bit more convincing than it actually was,” said Perrin, whose side also travel to Gillingham Town in the Les Phillips Cup semi-finals on Bank Holiday Monday.

“We played a lot better than we did in the previous match and hopefully we can do it again in the two games we have coming up this weekend, which are both really big games.

“We controlled the game for probably 85 minutes and we played some really good football. We had a lot of possession and missed some good chances in the second half to be further in front.

“It was a dramatic improvement on our performance in the previous match and I think the players deserve a lot of credit for that.”

County rivals Bradford Town were unable to help Melksham’s quest for third place as they went down 2-1 at home to Buckland – their third successive defeat.

Laurent Davis-Wilson fired Danny Greaves’ side ahead after only two minutes but they could not sustain that momentum, falling behind before half-time and they were unable to find an equaliser in the second period.