MARK Collier says that Chippenham Town will ‘live to fight another day’, despite their humbling at Dunstable Town yesterday.

The Bluebirds slipped to their biggest defeat of the season as they were thrashed 5-1 in Bedfordshire, with the hosts’ Anthony Marsh scoring either side of half-time whilst Adam Watkins, Charlie Henry and David Hutton were all also on target.

Toby Osman grabbed Chippenham’s consolation goal at Creasey Park and despite some of his more experienced players, including recent signings Michael Pook and Mark Preece, who joined the club from Gloucester City on Friday, standing out, Collier is hoping that his younger players will learn from being on the receiving end of a shellacking at Dunstable.

“I said to the players ‘remember this feeling’ because they need to make sure that they aren’t left feeling like that again,” said the Chippenham chief.

“We had a very quiet dressing room after the game. We haven’t gone in there ranting and raving – we’ve just calmly let people know where they went wrong.

“We came up against a very good side and I’d certainly expect Dunstable to finish in the top three at the end of the season.

“They got in behind us a few times and punished us and it was a difficult afternoon for a lot of our young players.

“Michael Pook was probably one of our standouts and so was Mark Preece, who actually did very well in the centre of defence.

“He was at Oxford City last season and we were aware that he’d not been playing that much at Gloucester this year so when we spoke to them, they were happy to let him go.

“Those two players did well and they’re two of our more experienced players but hopefully it will be a bit of a lesson for the younger ones in the side.

“We’ve got to take this one on the chin and work hard in training this week to put it right. It’s a heavy defeat but we live to fight another day.”

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