CHIPPENHAM Town suffered just a second loss in eight National League South games on Saturday when they went down 3-1 away at Hemel Hempstead Town.

David Moyo’s brace and Karl Oliyide’s first-half strike handed the home side a three-goal lead at the break.

Dean Evans pulled a goal back for Chippenham moments before the final whistle as Town edged closer to mathematically securing their National League South status for next season.

But Collier conceded his men were beaten by a Hemel side that deserved the three points.

He said: “We conceded a sloppy goal just before half-time but got ourselves on the front foot at the start of the second half.

“They had a sending off for a last man challenge, but we couldn’t capitalise and they got a third on the counter.

“We started the game poorly and need to do better than that.

“Although Hemel deserved the points, there were positives to take from the game.

“We’ve pretty much secured our status after Poole lost again.

“Sometimes it’s easy to hide after a game like that but the players fought tooth and nail.”

Poole’s loss means Chippenham require just one more point from their remaining three games to avoid relegation.

Similarly, Poole must win all of their remaining five games to pose any threat of Collier’s men facing the drop.

Collier said: “We’ll learn from our errors today, you often learn more when you lose.

“We know why we lost the game. It’s through no lack of effort.

“We just started the game badly and conceded two sloppy goals."