White at a loss to explain Bluebirds' cup defeat

9:37am Thursday 6th November 2008

Chippenham Town were made to pay for their wastefulness in front of goal when a 67th minute penalty sent them crashing out of the FA Trophy 1-0 against Heybridge Swifts from the Ryman league.

Adie Mings’ side created chances galore in Tuesday’s second qualifying round replay, and in the first game on Saturday.

But despite using five strikers at various times in both games they were unable to make a breakthrough in 180 minutes of football.

“God only knows how we didn’t win,” said young forward Joe White, who is on loan from Bristol Rovers.

“We’ve created so many chances, it’s just unbelievable.”

An awful night for the Bluebirds was made even worse after the final whistle when a home supporter ran on the pitch to chase Swifts goalkeeper Ollie Morris-Sanders.

The £3,000 they missed out on for failing to advance will surely now be compounded by a fine from the FA over the unsavoury incident.

The home side started positively but the two best chances came at the end of the first half.

Luke Bryan tamely poked a shot towards goal that was easily blocked before Kevin Slack produced a powerful from the edge of the box that forced the keeper into a good save.

Another good move on the hour mark saw Slack break free beyond the last defender but his finish again had more force than direction and went straight at Morris-Sanders.

The game then turned when Cortez Belle was reprimanded for handball in the area and Heybridge’s Robbie King gave Chris Snoddy no chance with a perfect penalty.

Chippenham upped their intensity and peppered the opposition net but were unable to get the equaliser their play deserved.

“As it goes on, and you’`re not scoring, you’re thinking ‘Is it going to come?’,” said White.

“It just didn’t in the end. In the first half and at half-time we thought we would go on to win the game but we just couldn’t quite do it. I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

Chippenham Town: Snoddy, Williams, Halliday, Belle, Gullick, Harvey (c), Holly, Slack (Sercombe), Pratt, White, Bryan (Seavill).