MARK Collier is hoping that his Chippenham Town team will be able to get the better of local rivals Frome Town next week after battling to force an FA Cup first qualifying round replay on Friday night.

The Bluebirds will host West Country rivals Frome at Hardenhuish Park next Tuesday evening (kick-off 7.45pm) after drawing 0-0 at Badgers Hill last night, but only after playing three-quarters of the match with ten men.

Striker Ashan Holgate was shown a straight red card for a two-footed lunge with around 15 minutes gone but the visitors managed to reorganise and force a reply, despite their man disadvantage.

Frome’s Darren Jefferies and Steve Hulbert both tested Chippenham goalie Kent Kauppinen whilst Luke Ballinger almost netted against his former club at the other end and Bluebirds boss Collier was delighted to see his team hold on to secure a second crack at reaching the second qualifying round.

“I’m delighted that we’ve stayed in the competition and have got another chance next Tuesday because it’s not easy when you lose a player after 15 minutes,” said Collier.

“Ashan hasn’t caught the lad but he’s made the tackle and some referees would have given a yellow for it. But when you have a big melee afterwards, referees usually punish the person that’s made the tackle.

“We also lost Michael Pook to a groin injury, so that made it even harder but we could have won it right at the end when Luke Ballinger has shot just wide.

“Frome have just got a new manager and have signed some new players – I don’t know if they’ll sign more before they play us again.

“I said to the lads that they’re going to win a game sometime and we needed to make sure that it wasn’t against us.

“We were the favourites before the game and we’ll be the favourites again on Tuesday but we’ve got to keep 11 players on the pitch and do what we can to get through to the next round in the competition.”

Holgate will be eligible to play in next week’s replay but midfielder Michael Pook will miss out after hobbling off in Friday’s initial tie.