CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier is keen to make sure their good start to the campaign counts for something come the end of the season.

The Bluebirds are now five games without a win in the league following their 1-0 defeat at home to Poole Town on Tuesday night, and have only picked up one win in their last seven in all competitions.

The dip in form has seen Town slip out of the play-off places but Collier is not pressing the panic button.

“I said to people when we were going particularly well, we can’t get too high about the highs and equally, we can’t get to low about the lows during the season,” said the Hardenhuish Park boss.

“We must make sure we stay positive and remain together as a tight-knit squad and I am confident in the dressing room that we have got that.

“It is a third of the season gone and we are in a handy little position with 84 points still to play for. We have played Poole twice now and played Weymouth twice and all these things need to be considered.

“We have had a positive first third of the season and we must now continue to take that on and make it mean something.

“We are going through a low at the moment but we need to manage our expectations and we need to be cute about that.”

With Chippenham three points behind Hungerford Town, who occupy the last play-off place, and with two games in hand, Collier has not yet felt the need to address his pre-season expectations.

Add to that the return of some influential players, including attacking midfielder Alex Ferguson, and the Bluebirds boss has reason to be optimistic.

“We’ve got good players and some of those are coming back to form,” Collier added.

“Alex Ferguson is back now - he will make a difference - young Harry Grant has come on (on Tuesday) and we have now got a squad where we can rotate the players.

“We’re going to need a squad of players if we are going to be in and around those play-offs for the rest of the season. That was our ambition at the start of the season and nothing has changed from our point of view.

“Obviously I would like to be in a better place but there is no doom and gloom on our part.”