MELKSHAM Town boss Kieran Baggs was delighted with his side’s perfect response to their first Toolstation League defeat of the season as they dispatched Longwell Green Sports 6-0 away from home on Tuesday night.

Having taken the lead late on at home to Shepton Mallet last Saturday, Baggs described it as a ‘sucker punch’ as they conceded twice in five minutes through Craig Loxton and Cameron Sanford to end their unbeaten start in the Premier Division.

However, with Longwell Green struggling at the foot of the table, without a point to their name, it was the perfect opportunity to bounce straight back and braces from Luke Ballinger and Gary Higdon set them on their way, with further strikes from Dan Demkiv and Michael Perrott late on.

“The first defeat was disappointing,” said Baggs.

“We had six or seven lads away, it’s not an excuse but it’s one of those things, at our standard, you have to deal with.

“I had to change the whole back four and it was never going to be an easy day.

“To go 1-0 up in the 80th minute and then to concede two late goals, it was a bit of a sucker punch.

“It’s going to happen this season, with the transition of the way we are trying to play now – a bit more playing out from the back.

“We need to be a bit more professional in the way we see games out in the closing stages but Tuesday night was the perfect response.

“Longwell are struggling but, the longer they play together, the harder it’s going to be to go there.

“To go there and win 6-0, it was a good performance and it was important to see goals from other areas.

“Luke Ballinger and Gary Higdon are always going to score goals, that’s what they do, but Mike Perrott has been chipping in with a few and Dan Demkiv has started the season really well.”

Melksham now face a big test as they travel to league leaders Buckland Athletic, sitting three points behind in second.

However, that task is made all the more challenging with the absence of top scorer Higdon, who already has nine goals to his name, and Tyler Sibbick.

“Tuesday night’s performance sets us up perfectly for a really big one against Buckland away,” added Baggs.

“We’ll go down there light but the whole point of having a big squad is for these sort of things, not to make excuses.

“To go down there without one of your top players, it’s going to make things harder than you’d like.

“The top five is where we are and I have sat down with the committee and they are under no illusion that it will be a transitional season this term.

“We’ll just keep building and see where we are.”

Meanwhile, Bradford Town eased into the first round of the Les Phillips Cup with a 4-2 success away at county rivals Calne Town in the preliminary round on Saturday.

Sam Jordan led the way for Danny Greaves’ side with a superb hat-trick, while Anthony Conradi also got on the scoresheet.