BRIDPORT boss Adam Fricker is aiming to give Melksham Town a “real test” when the Bees travel to the new Oakfields Stadium for their Toolstation Western Premier Division clash on Saturday (3pm).

Fricker’s men lost 3-2 to high-flying Buckland Athletic in their last outing, but the Bees’ manager feels that confidence “will still be high” after their FA Cup endeavours and winning three of their past five league games.

He told the Bridport News: “Melksham have started the season well. It’s a fantastic new stadium that they’ve got and it will be a decent pitch – nice to play on.

“After 25 minutes (against Buckland) we were 3-0 down and the lads were unlucky. The confidence will still be high, and we had quite a few missing.

“After playing Cribbs we knew we had two very, very tough away games coming up. We just need to go up there and be positive and that’s exactly what we have been doing all season.

“Hopefully if we can be nice and solid with the ball we can give them a real test.”

Having missed the Buckland game due to work commitments, Fricker was nonetheless pleased to see his side’s “massive character” from afar, as they nearly salvaged a point from a three-goal deficit.

He said: “The lads were excellent second half and really gave Buckland a scare. You’ve got to take the positives from a defeat like that.

“It was massive character and we proved that against Cribbs when we conceded three very quick goals and bounced back to get a point.

Fricker also revealed that his coaching staff have been working to improve the Bees’ defence having conceded 10 goals in four games.

“The lads went in (for training) on the Saturday morning. Training went well and we managed to work on a few defensive things.

“It’s probably the first chance we have had all season to look at a few different things and we can start to concentrate on training in a little bit more detail.

“From our perspective we are conceding a few goals at the moment so we need to be looking at that and work on that in training,” he said.

Bridport are set to welcome back Leigh Bailey, Tom Richardson, Richard Hebditch and Ryan Hayter after the quartet missed the Buckland defeat.

Fricker said: “Leigh and Tom have been excellent for us this season. Declan Cornish came in for Richard and he did really well.

“He’s been patient and waited for his chance but to get Tom and Leigh back is massive for us.”