ROSS Adams is adamant that Highworth Town deserved a point for their efforts against Southern League Division One high flyers Melksham Town on Saturday, a game the hosts won by a goal.

Steven Murray grabbed the game’s only goal with 11 minutes remaining as Highworth were left to rue a number of missed opportunities that ultimately earned Melksham ‘keeper Jamie Bartlett his man of the match award.

The win was Melksham’s ninth on the spin, an outstanding achievement given the club was positioned at the lower end of the table only a couple of months ago.

Though Worthians’ co-boss Adams took great encouragement from his side’s latest defeat, he admitted being more clinical in front of goal is a trait they must accomplish if losses are going to be turned into points.

He said: “We played well on Saturday – last weekend (against Winchester) we weren’t good enough.

“But we went to Melksham and took the game too them, to be honest we’re massively disappointed to leave with no points to our name.

“But that’s football, Melksham have won a lot of games on the spin and they’ve pounced on one of our mistakes.

“We’ve got to be a bit more streetwise and take our chances when we’re on top of games, unfortunately we didn’t do that against Melksham when we perhaps deserved a point.”

Highworth are back in action on Saturday when Basingstoke visit in the Southern League – a team Adams used to play for.

The Highworth co-boss has many fond memories of representing Basingstoke during his playing days, but would love nothing more than a timely win over his former club come the weekend.

He added: “When we do play well, we need to start punishing teams. Melksham are well organised and solid throughout, it’s easy to see why they’ve managed to get results.

“But that goes for most teams in this league. If you’re organised and limit mistakes you can quickly find yourselves moving up the league.

“We weren’t shut out up front, Melksham’s ‘keeper picked up man of the match which tells the story.

“He made a two or three great saves throughout the game, but we’ve got to be that bit more ruthless in front of goal – we haven’t really been doing that since myself and John (Fisher) took charge.”