DANNY Thomas has challenged his Chippenham players to carry on fighting for each other and build on their crucial victory over Avonmouth Old Boys last weekend with another triumph this Saturday.

A hard-fought 8-7 win in Bristol saw Thomas’ men bring their ten-match losing streak to an end and notch up their first away win of the season so far.

Chippenham, who now have three victories to their name this campaign, have leapfrogged Avonmouth into 12th-place in the National League Three South West table and now they have got the monkey off their back, Thomas has called on his side to throw everything into staving off the threat of relegation.

“It was a tight game and it wasn’t much of a spectacle but the difficult weather conditions dictated that. We had a bit of luck at times but in the end, I thought that we deserved to win,” said the Chippenham coach.

“It’s a big result for us but we’ve got to back it up with another good performance this weekend (at home to Barnstaple.

“It’s all about having a settled squad and having boys that are going to work for each other. They showed that in abundance on the weekend and it’s important that they keep that going.

“We know that we’ve got some tough fixtures coming up, especially a few away from home, but we’ve got to be confident that we can carry on picking up points.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a point, four points or five points – we’ve got to keep on getting them on the board to put pressure on the sides above us and the ones below us.”

Chippenham opened their account around the half-hour mark as Tom Knight crashed over the whitewash from close range after Avonmouth’s Phil Dickinson was shown a yellow card for preventing a quick penalty.

The hosts were caught offside on the stroke of half-time, allowing Sam Saunders to land a penalty and put Thomas’ men 8-0 up.

Avonmouth roared back in the second period and almost pulled back a try when Andy Taylor looked to have made it over the line but the referee was unconvinced and the home side were denied the score.

But, ten minutes from time, the deficit was reduced to a whisker as a Harry Hone try was converted by Eamonn Rees but Chippenham held on to claim a vital win.

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