IN THE grand scheme of things, Chippenham Town manager Mark Collier admits that his side may have underachieved this term.

But the Hardenhuish Park boss says that building a side to challenge towards the top end of the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division doesn’t happen overnight.

The Bluebirds, who weren’t in action last weekend, currently find themselves 13th in the table, 11 points off the top six, and they boast the joint sixth-best defensive record in the division.

But only five teams have ound the net less than Collier’s men and the Chippenham chief is certain that his team have fallen well short in the goalscoring stakes so far this season.

“We’ve probably underachieved a little bit this season – we’d like to be a lot higher in the league than we are,” said the Hardenhuish Park boss.

“We’d love to be up near the play-offs but we’ve definitely not been scoring as many goals as we should be doing and the players are aware of that.

“I think anyone would struggle to replace the 25 or so goals that Alan Griffin gives you and we’ve also struggled having Lee Phillips out with injury for long spells.

“Ashan Holgate is a good target man but he’s not a prolific goalscorer and Mark Francis started well but has lost a little bit of confidence and form, hence why he’s not been starting games.

“We have brought in Jack Odam and he’s looked bright in the two little goes we’ve given him.

“We have had to play midfield players such as Jordan Roberts and Alex Ferguson up front but we should really be getting a lot more goals across the pitch.

“Our team selection has also been more fragmented than I’ve experienced before – we’ve had no luck with injuries at all.

“We’ve got 12 games to go and we’ll try and win as many games as we can. We’ve had four wins and a draw in our last seven games, so our form has been quite good.

“I think we’re on course for an improved points tally compared we’ve had in the last three or four years. In the past at Swindon Supermarine, it took time to build but hopefully we can continue to improve.”

Chippenham travel to fourth-placed Corby Town on Saturday and Collier has his fingers crossed that full-back Conor McCormack and midfielder Jordan Roberts will return to fitness to take part.

But the Bluebirds boss’ hopes of a fully-fit squad for the trip to Northamptonshire have been curtailed thanks to Greg Tindle and James Guthrie’s suspensions.