MELKSHAM Town manager Richard Fey has urged fans not to panic over their slow start to the season and believes he now has everything in place to go on a surge up the Southern League Division One South table.

The Wiltshire outfit have endured a tough start to the campaign, picking up just seven points from their opening half-a-dozen league games.

Sandwiched between impressive wins against Slimbridge and county rivals Highworth Town, Melksham were heavily beaten 5-0, 4-2 and 3-0 during a frustrating opening month.

Fey was keen to stress to onlookers that they should not worry about the slow start as performances have largely been quite encouraging – even if the results were not – and he is sure his players will be able to turn draws and losses into wins as long as consistency in selection remains high.

“I’ve not been concerned about our start to the season because selection has been so inconsistent so far,” said Fey.

“I always knew that if I could get my best 11 out, or my best 16 are available, then we’ll be fine so long as commitment remains high.

“Unfortunately so far, we haven’t had that since the day I walked in through the door.

“We’ve been chopping and changing every week, but we’ve now got a structure, a formation, a bit of stability in the side and we just need to build on it now.”

Ahead of their eventful 1-1 draw against Thatcham Town last Saturday, Fey opted to hand another debut to one of his youth players – Tyrone Tucker-Dixon – who featured on the bench for the first time.

While the Melksham chief is happy to entrust youngsters in his squad, he would prefer his senior players to make themselves available more often.

Fey said: “What people shouldn’t forget is that we’ve got a brand new team this season. Another player made their debut last weekend, and that’s been the case in every game that we’ve played this season.

“But now, I’m starting to feel a lot more confident and a lot happier that things have settled down because there are no more holidays, weddings or work trips away.

“There shouldn’t be any more excuses to disrupt us now because holiday season is over.

“A lot of managers locally have all had the same problem – the ones that haven’t had that problem are flying high in their respective leagues.”

With two more league games against sides in the top half to come in the next fortnight, Fey is looking forward to his side opening their legs up and significantly adding to their points tally before Christmas comes around.

Fey said: “At the moment, we’re sitting 12th in a comfortable position, but it’s too early to look at league tables.

“The big thing for me is that the first nine games were all against top-11 sides. For any club at any level, that’s tough.

“We’ve got Evesham this Saturday, who are fifth, we’ve then got Cinderford and then Frome in the cup, who are top.

“That’s been the story of our season so far – the fixture list has not been kind to us.”