NEW Melksham Town boss Dave Clayton says that he jumped at the chance to return to the Conigre.

The 42-year-old, former Melksham player and reserve team boss stepped in to fill the void left by Adam Young and watched his new side stretch their unbeaten run to five games with a 3-0 win over neighbours Westbury United last Saturday.

Clayton, who lives in the town and works as a buyer in the construction industry, will be assisted by former Melksham teammate Justin Messenger and says that he plans to carry on the good work of the previous management.

“I didn’t have to think long about it when I was asked because taking over as manager just felt natural,” said Clayton, who also spent eight seasons managing a Melksham United youth side.

“I’ve always been involved with the club and, without sounding arrogant, all of the lads know who I am and I think it’s a popular appointment.

“Adam (Young) is a good friend of mine and he’s done a brilliant job in the year-and-a-half that he was in charge so there’s no reason to go changing anything halfway through the season.

“There’s a great bunch of lads at the club too.

“The committee have only been in charge for just over a year and they want to see lads from the Melksham area playing for the club, which is something that I really want to make sure we have too.”

Messenger, 38, captained Melksham as a player under Robbie Lardner and most recently assisted former boss Young as a coach and added: “I probably spent most of my career at Melksham as a player and I had no problems in stepping up at all – it didn’t need selling to me or Dave at all.”

Conigre chairman Dave Wiltshire revealed that Clayton and Messenger were the club’s preferred candidates for the job from the off.

“When Adam had to leave, it was a shock to us and we were inundated with calls about the job from managers out of work and even ones who are already at clubs,” said Wiltshire.

“We wanted them to take over and when we offered it to them, we were delighted that they accepted.

“They’re both relatively young, they’ve both played for the club and they got their first win on Saturday – hopefully they can carry on our good start.”