CHIPPENHAM were able to let their hair down at their team Christmas party with an almighty spring in their step after finally clinching their first victory of the season last weekend.

The Allington Field side have toiled since returning to National League Three South West this term, failing to secure a win in 11 games but on Saturday, their luck finally changed as they made the long trip south to Ivybridge but returned to Wiltshire following a maiden triumph.

Chippenham came from 12-0 down to run out 22-19 winners in Devon but head coach Andi Kyriacou says that his frustration was always kept at a low simmer as his side searched for a turnaround in their fortunes.

“You’re not very frustrated when you can see improvements in performance week after week,” said Kyriacou, who was out of the country at the time of Chippenham’s Ivybridge success.

“The players were becoming frustrated by it, but we always came back to: ‘are we learning from the losses? Do we understand the game plan? Are we working hard enough for each other when the ball is in play? Are we correcting skill set issues?’ “The answers have gradually become ‘yes’, as the weeks have gone on. We have a great leadership team and lots of young players, who want to develop.

“They have driven the standards, and it was only a matter of time before we got our first win of the year.

“If we were to be honest, lapses of concentration, incorrect decision making and poor execution of skills at key moments in the game meant we weren’t quite putting the required performance together for the full 80 minutes, and as the players have found out, in the National League, your mistakes get punished.

“But it’s testament to their work in training that these errors are reducing.”

Kyriacou added: “I am delighted for the players and all the support staff. As a group, we know that if we stay in the game for 80 minutes and fight smart, we will get the rewards.

“The squad has had new players introduced to it at the start of the season and I have to give the current squad a lot of credit for integrating the new players in, staying tight and together as a group, and for believing in what we as a club are trying to achieve.”