Yate 3

Melksham 2

Yate Town boss Paul Britton is preparing for a ‘cup final’ after his side secured a home play-off semi final with victory over Melksham Town writes Tom Mason. 

Nick Peare, Ross Langworthy and Olly Mehew scored the goals as Yate won 3-2 at Lodge Road on Easter Monday to end a run of back-to-back defeats.

Yate can now plan for a play-off semi-final at Lodge Road on Wednesday, May 1.

Britton played down the prospect of home advantage in the play offs, insisting it’s a one off game,

“I think it’s important, you want to get a decent crowd in behind you but I don’t think it means a great deal,” said Britton.

“It’s a one off game. There’s basically now two cup finals to try and get promotion.”

Striker Olly Mehew has been crucial for Yate this season and this proved no different against Melksham as he come onto score the penalty which ultimately took Yate to victory and Britton was delighted with the forward’s performance.

“He’s done it a couple of times this year, where he’s stepped up, he doesn’t seem to feel the pressure spot.

“He feels more pressure out in open play, but he played a full 90 on Saturday, so we’ve just jiggled it about a little bit, it was no reflection on what he did on Saturday it was just so we had some strength to come off the bench.”

A point will be enough for Yate to secure second place when they travel to Street this weekend and Britton is keen to end on a high.

“I think it would be nice to finish runners up, Street have got a lot to play for as it’s their last game in the league, their manager leaves at the end of the season so it’s his last game and we’ve got to go there with the right attitude and we want to finish runners up.”