MARTIN Paul admits every game Chippenham Town play at the moment is like taking another step into the unknown.

The Bluebird striker has played a key role in his side's winning start to the season but he believes it is hard to know the strength of their opposition so early on.

The summer restructuring of the non-league pyramid has seen a number of new teams join the Southern League, leaving everybody, including Paul, wondering who is going to be the team to beat.

In the next four days, Chippenham face matches against VS Rugby and Team Bath and Paul said both sides would be an unknown quantity.

He said: "It is a massive step into the unknown. Until we play about 10 games we are not really going to know how strong each team is.

"We have beaten Dunstable and Solihull but we don't yet know whether they are good results or whether they will both be near the bottom come the end of the season.

"On Tuesday night, Solihull showed signs of being a very good side and by the end of the season we might look at the three points as a vital win.

"We are going into every game without a clue as to what our opponents are like and it will be the same against Rugby tomorrow and Team Bath on Monday."

This season's record of six points out of two games contrasts starkly to last season when the Bluebirds only picked up one victory in their first 11 games and Paul believes the biggest difference is experience.

He said: "Last season we didn't lose that many but we didn't win many either. The problem was if we missed a chance we thought that was it.

"But with Steve White, we are set up more adventurously and if they score we always believe that we are capable of making chances.

"A lot of the players last year were not very experienced and there is only a certain amount of experience you can give to players, they have to get it through playing.

"Now Ian Herring, Wayne Thorne, Mark Badman, Gary Horgan and the like will have played another year at this level and should be better for it.

"So we are bound to be stronger every year we stay together. I would also say we are more solid this season I can't see us getting rolled over like we were at times last season."

After tomorrow's home match against Rugby, Chippenham travel to Bath University to play local rivals Team Bath for the first time.

Paul said: "It should be interesting and although there is not the history of Bath City v Chippenham, it is still a local derby.

"There is bound to be a lovely surface to play on and so hopefully we will be able to keep our winning run going.

"Team Bath tried to sign me a couple of seasons ago so I take their claims of being students with a pinch of salt.

"I haven't had any education since I was 16 so I don't quite know how I qualify as a student."