MELKSHAM Town manager Darren Perrin hopes his side have given Bristol Manor Farm food for thought in the race for the Toolstation Premier Division title.

Although Perrin states that the Bristolians remain heavy favourites – a fact reinforced by the fact they are still 11 points clear at the summit – Melksham’s 2-1 victory over the leaders on Monday night proved that there could be more twists and turns yet to come.

Melksham are currently third in the table, 12 points behind Manor Farm, and also reached the third round of the Les Phillips Cup last weekend with a 3-2 win at First Division side Warminster Town.

For the time being at least, Perrin simply wants to keep the leaders honest and garner as many points as possible from the remaining nine league games.

“I have always said that I want to finish higher than fifth,” said Perrin.

“That’s where we were last year so above that would be progression and I am very confident that we can do that.

“We want to try to finish as high up as we possibly can but we would also like to get to the Les Phillips Cup final for the first time in the club’s history.

“We’ve been to two semi-finals but not the final.

“I think we can see that Bristol Manor Farm are fallible because where we have won two games in three days, they have lost two as they also went out of the Les Phillips Cup on Saturday.

“There’s pressure on them now and it will be interesting to see how they deal with that.

“Do I still think they will win the league? Yes, because they have got the points on the board and still have loads of match-winners in their squad.

“It’s now up to us and Street and Buckland to keep winning games.

“I do still think Manor Farm will go on and win it but pressure does silly things to people and stranger things have happened in football.”

Melksham host mid-table side Chipping Sodbury Town on Saturday and Perrin hopes to benefit from the return of a string of first-team regulars after they missed Monday’s win over the league leaders.

“The last result is immaterial if we don’t go and beat Chipping Sodbury at the weekend because we have to back up that win in our next game,” said Perrin.

“I think Sam Jordan, Gary Higdon and Luke Ballinger will all be back available, which gives us a bit of a selection headache and that’s a nice position to be in.

“However, Mike Perrott is out after he picked up a bad injury on Monday and I think he might be out for some time, unfortunately.”