THIRD placed Exmouth survived a Melksham backlash to leave the Conigre with a point on Saturday.

Two weeks ago Melksham were surprisingly knocked out of the Wiltshire Senior Cup to Cricklade in an embarrassing 5-2 defeat.

Manager Nigel Tripp demanded an improvement from his players and he got just that.

The home side twice hit the bar, had two goals disallowed for offside and even had a last minute one-on-one saved as they more than matched the title contenders.

Tripp was disappointed his team did not win the game but was extremely encouraged with his side's performance, especially after the humiliating defeat the previous Saturday.

He said: "We should have won the game, but after the Cricklade result this is a good for us."

After conceding five against a Wiltshire League side last week the manager thought that keeping a clean sheet was important.

"The goalkeeper (Brad Williams) and the two centre backs, Lee Burns and Ryan Trowbridge were solid, everything was safe. The defence are forming a great partnership together and Brad did extremely well, he collected every cross and made a couple of important saves."

The manager said confidence is now at a high ahead of Saturday's match when Melksham travel to another title chasing side, Bristol Manor Farm.

"If we keep performing like that there is no reason we can get a result at Bristol, I think we will prove that we are not a bad side."

Melksham first came close to taking the lead in the 15th minute when Burns, who was cup tied for the Wiltshire Cup game, connected with a David Blake cross, but his shot crashed against the crossbar and was cleared to safety.

Just five minutes later the home side hit the woodwork again when defender Trowbridge's header brushed against the top of the bar.

The hosts dominated the first half and were again left wondering why they did not take the lead when striker Jamie Cheeseman had the ball in the back of the net.

He latched on to a long diagonal ball from defender Jack Nicholas and volleyed it in, but the linesman deemed the forward offside and the scores stayed tied at the break.

On the hour mark Cheeseman was again denied when midfielder Adam Gingell put him through on the keeper.

Cheeseman calmly slotted the ball past the visiting keeper but was left fuming when he was again given offside.

In the dying minutes Melksham were again denied the three points when Blake was put through on goal, but the visiting keeper made an outstanding save to deny him.