WHILE promotion to the highest level the club has ever been may seem like the substance of dreams for many, for Chippenham Town manager Mark Collier, it was always a possibility in his blueprint.

The Bluebirds were at one of their lowest ebbs when Collier took charge back in November 2013, having returned from holiday to take the role from caretaker boss Steve Winter, who had also been on holiday for the club’s 9-0 defeat to Stourbridge, in which Greg Tindle and Iain Harvey both saw red.

However, having sat down with chairman Neil Blackmore, Collier’s aim was clear and it was the 2016/17 campaign that he targeted for a shot a promotion, albeit a more realistic target of doing it through the play-offs rather than romping the league with a record points tally.

Having pushed last season’s champions Poole Town close for much of the season before falling away late on, Collier went into this campaign with more assurance than most.

“I always thought, in the third season, we could get ourselves into the play-offs,” he explained.

“When we got to Christmas, I thought, these play-offs are going to be right within our reach.

“It wasn’t until the last six to eight weeks that we thought, we can actually win this title.

“We’d been to some tough places and picked up three points.

“In my own mind, I thought this would be our season.

“We had a strong spine to the team, lots of legs and lots of energy, we had goals in us, experience on the bench and young players who could come on and change things.

“We were lucky on the injury front, that we didn’t get too many serious ones injuries to key players, when there were key players out, people came in and stood up.”

To the outside, Collier was saying all the right things, pulling out the usual clichés of ‘taking each game as it comes’ and ‘no easy games at this level’ to name a few.

But on the inside, a 3-1 win away to Hitchin Town with three games to go was the point he believed Chippenham had clinched the title, especially once he returned to the changing room.

“If we had lost at Hitchin, with the way the games were with the bank holiday coming up, Leamington could have gone top,” he said.

“To go there and win and then to come off the pitch and hear that Leamington have drawn 0-0 at home to Kings Langley, you think we’d have to be poor from now on in and not pick up enough points.

“However, you don’t really believe it until it’s done.

“I think what we did, because we were so relentless and ruthless, it must have been shocking for other clubs to see our results.”

Chippenham were presented the title on Saturday at Hardenhuish Park as two first-half goals from Dave Pratt and Matt Smith secured a 2-0 win over St Ives Town and a record points tally for the Southern League Premier Division in the process.

However, the presentation was put on hold when the game was brought to an abrupt halt as St Ives’ player Josh Dawkins sustained a double fracture to the leg in a tackle.

Collier, who went to visit Dawkins at hospital earlier this week, could have been forgiven for sleeping off the ill-effects of a celebratory night before on Sunday.

Instead, he is already starting a fresh blueprint for life in the National League South.

“First of all, we need to secure the players from this season, before we start speaking to others,” he explained.

“I was speaking to players on Sunday morning from other clubs now the season is over, asking them what their thoughts are about joining for next season.

“I have to be careful again, it has to be the right type of player.

“I’m under no illusion in how tough the league is going to be but we’re in a good place and we have to find that little way of making a difference when we come up against teams who have got budgets of £25,000 a week.”