CHIPPENHAM Town chief Mark Collier has targeted an immediate response from his players after they suffered just a third Southern League defeat of the season on Tuesday night.

The Bluebirds travel to Dunstable Town on Saturday having lost ground on the top two in the Premier Division table following a 2-1 midweek loss at Banbury United.

Victory for Dunstable at the weekend would see them climb above Chippenham into third and Collier knows his side cannot afford to be playing catch-up if they want to be involved in the promotion shake-up at the end of the season.

“There is no point going overboard about Banbury, we just need to learn the lessons from it,” said Collier.

“We sat down with the players afterwards and we said we know where we went wrong. We are disappointed about it because we are not used to losing.

“The important thing is not to lose to the teams towards the top of the league. After losing at Banbury, we want to get three points at the weekend to put that result to bed. We will go there trying to win and if not, the aim is not to lose.

“Dunstable have dropped form a little bit but they got a good win over Dorchester in the league on Saturday and followed that with another win in a cup game in midweek, so they have got some confidence back into them.”

James Guthrie is a doubt for the trip to Dunstable after suffering an ankle injury at Banbury but Collier otherwise has a fully-fit squad to pick from.

Guthrie’s premature departure came in the middle of a tough first half for the Bluebirds on Tuesday night as they already trailed to Conor McDonagh’s opening goal after 18 minutes.

Things then went from bad to worse as Greg Tindle turned the ball into his own net to give Banbury a 2-0 lead at the break.

Collier issued a rallying cry to his troops at half-time and although Will Richards gave them a lifeline midway through the second period, Chippenham’s efforts to force an equaliser were in vain.

“In the second half, we were unfortunate, but in the first half, we were not good enough at all. We dropped our standards and that was very disappointing,” said Collier.

“We had some harsh words at half-time and got the response we expected and were unlucky not to get something at the end of the game but our poor first half has come back to haunt us.

“It’s a tough place to go and we’ve given ourselves a mountain to climb against a good side. You have to take risks to get back in the game and we did that but, unfortunately, we left ourselves too much to do.”

Chippenham Town: Chitty, Preece (Griffin 46), Felix, Horgan (Pook 71), Tindle, Richards, Ferguson, Smith, Pratt, Sandell, Guthrie (Jones 34).

Subs not used: Campbell, Allen.

Referee: Mark Howes (Solihull)

Attendance: 300