LLOYD Macklin has been released by Chippenham Town.

The 22-year-old former Swindon Town and Torquay United man had been left out of the Bluebirds squad for this week's home victories over Weymouth and St Neots Town, along with young midfielder Jake Simpson, for breaching club discipline. 

Macklin made five appearances for Mark Collier's side after joining Chippenham last month before the Hardenhuish Park club confirmed the forward's departure this afternoon.

“Lloyd Macklin and Jake Simpson have been missing training and doing a few other things that haven’t been up to scratch so they’ve been left out of the squad for the last two games," said Collier.

“Myself and Tom (Jones, assistant manager) have a standard that we want the players to adhere to and we don’t want to have any bad apples.

“We want to have as competitive a squad as possible and the most important thing is that we’ve got everybody pushing in the same direction.”

Collier, who confirmed earlier this week that the door was open for Simpson to return to his squad, was delighted to see his side take maximum points from two home encounters this week, but reiterated that Chippenham are still a work in progress.

He said: “We knew that six points would be on offer for us and I thought that we carried on from last weekend, when we played very well in some difficult conditions, against St Neots.

“There have been some outstanding performances and we came through a really tricky period in the second half on Tuesday night.

“We’re still a side in transition but we want to keep getting better as we move forward – all we want to keep seeing is that improvement.”

The Bluebirds make the trip to Bedfordshire this weekend to take on Arlesey Town, with Collier’s men looking to avenge their disappointing 1-0 home defeat at the hands of the Blues earlier this month.

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