MELKSHAM Town had a rare Saturday afternoon off last weekend because their trip to Bridgwater was rained off.

Manager Nigel Tripp hopes the extra rest will benefit his players. "We've got two home games coming up in three days this week and it is important that we win both," he said. "We play Barnstaple in the league on Saturday and Calne in the Les Phillips Cup on Monday. We've not been able to train fully at the moment because we have been struggling with facilities and haven't been able to use our pitch as much as we wanted.

"But we are lucky in the respect that we are a young team and younger players are naturally fit. Not many of them struggle with fitness."

Tripp said the enforced break would give his injured players more of a chance to recover.

Barnstaple currently lie three places and four points above Melksham and Tripp describes the game as a must win fixture. "It is very important to us for a number of reasons," he said. "We need to beat them for the three league points and also to give us confidence for the cup game on Monday.

"We got a good result with a 1-1 at their place earlier in the season. I believe they beat Bideford on Boxing Day so they have been up and down like us.

"If we get at them it shouldn't be a problem but we have then got another big game against Calne almost straight after. I went to see them in the Wiltshire Senior Cup against Highworth and they did well. They battled hard and we will be wary not to take them too lightly."

Tripp said the Les Phillips Cup is a competition his side were taking very seriously. "We want to win the cup there's no doubt about it," he added. "We are a premier division side and we have a good chance."

Tripp is hoping the free weekend will allow Steve Casey to fully shake off a groin problem while he is still waiting for a diagnosis on the extent of the knee ligament injury Dan Harvey suffered against Keynsham recently.