Melton Town boss rues hatful of misses in FA Vase exit

Town had won their first-ever tie in the national competition earlier in the month, and a cup run looked in the offing for the first 40 minutes of their second qualifying round tie.

Melton had dominated opponents FC Bolsover, creating numerous chances to add to their 1-0 lead, given to them after just seven minutes by an own goal from a Liam Ambrose corner.

But their opponents handed them a cruel lesson in finishing, equalising with their only real chance of here half just before the break through Parfitt.

The goal seemed to rock the home team who conceded three further times in the second half to skew the scoreline.

“It was hard to take, but it was our own fault really,” said Hendey.

“We were excellent in the first half and should have been out of sight, but didn’t take our chances. They weren’t half-chances either, they were glaring misses.

“But it just shows what a difference that goal made to them, and to us.

“They (Bolsover) were all over the place for most of the first half and we were so dominant, but they scored early in the second half and that sapped the life out of us.”

He added: “We totally lost our shape which was my fault,

“They had a really good lad in midfield who sat off and played in a position that was difficult for us to pick up.

“I should have changed the formation to deal with him at half-time - his delivery and final pass were superb - but I thought we had done well enough in the first half to continue the same way.”

Melton handed a debut to Panama international keeper Charlie Taylor, on loan from Loughborough United, as cover for the injured Jamie Witham.

Town were also without three centre-backs for the visit of the Northern Counties East League side, but Hendey and co-manager Shane Jarram hoped their attacking talents would take the heat off their makeshift defence.

The injury woes continued after kick-off with the loss of yet another defender as well as midfield lynchpin Mike Hendey with a thigh problem.

But while cursing his team’s luck, manager Hendey was keen not to use their growing injury list as an excuse ahead of their trip to United Counties League leaders Buckingham Town on Saturday (ko 3pm).

He said: “That’s two games running where we have lost 4-1 and created goodness knows how many chances to win.

“But we are still going through a process; it’s not a complete team yet and we’re having to play people out of position.

“We just need to be patient, and wait to get that settled back four because upfield we are really strong.

“If we weren’t creating chances and playing well then we would have a problem.

“If we are still in touch by Christmas and get people back from injury, we will see how we go – we won’t have any excuses then.”