CHIPPENHAM Town lifted the Wiltshire Premier Shield for the first time in 13 years on Sunday after demolishing a youthful Swindon Town line-up managed by ex-Liverpool and England hardman Neil Ruddock.

The visitors, featuring highly-rated young stars Craig Farr and Ian Herring, simply had no answer to a typically powerful display from their in-form hosts before a bumper Hardenhuish Park crowd of 1,204.

Nathan Rudge opened the scoring on 14 minutes and, by the time Matt Rawlins headed home number two five minutes after the interval, it was merely a case of how many the Bluebirds would win by. As it was they scored twice more, with Steve Brown netting his third in as many games from close range, and James Bent putting the finishing touches to the home side's triumph with a magnificent fourth.

Chippenham assistant boss Colin Bush was pleased after his side secured the Premier Shield for the first time since 1988/99. He said: "It is the first time I've ever won it and, with Swindon being a bit high profile at the moment, it made it a bigger thing to win this year.

"At the end of the day, there's now't better than winning silverware."

Bush revealed a stern half-time talking-to had sparked the Bluebirds' dominant display after the interval.

"We told the lads at half-time not to take their foot off the gas. We got the goal we wanted in the first half, but then gave the initiative back to them.

"The boys had a bit of a rocket, but in the second half we were a different class. Swindon were a young side and obviously thought they had enough to win, but in the end they were well beaten."

Three of the goals came from headers and Bush felt his side had exploited the visitors' defensive weakness in the air.

He said: "The goalkeeper was a very small lad and they struggled at the back in the air. Nathan and Benty were unmarked for their goals and Matty also scored with a header.

"Maybe they underestimated us. We were so dominant and the second half display will have sent a lot of people home happy."

Bluebirds manager Tommy Saunders reverted back to his first choice starting eleven following the midweek experiment at Cirencester, with ex-Swindon man Gareth Davies at right back. There was no place in the squad for Swindon community officer Jimmy Fraser, who had looked impressive at Cirencester.

Swindon were the first to threaten, with Neil Crosby forcing Tony Malessa into an early save, but the home side seized control and might have scored after Bent robbed goalkeeper Farr by the right corner flag. His cross was cleared by skipper Herring before it reached the lurking Brown, who was involved when Chippenham took the lead in the 14th minute.

The wide man's shot from the edge of the box was deflected for a corner on the left, which Harrington delivered to the far post for Rudge to head powerfully home for his sixth goal of an impressive campaign.

Farr then did well to foil Steve Tweddle after the Bluebirds hitman had muscled his way clear of Josh Thomas, before Brown came within inches of doubling the lead when his volley from the edge of the area came back off the bar.

Malessa produced an acrobatic stop to keep out a mis-hit effort from winger Chris Hughes, but blotted his copybook when he twice misjudged high balls into the area moments later.

Fortunately Shane Andrews was on hand to block Graham Walton's weak header on the line, before Brown made another goalline clearance after the goalkeeper lost sight of a corner.

Rudge limped off with a re-occurrence of his hamstring injury, while Davies should have scored in stoppage time when he lifted a shot from point-blank range over Farr's crossbar.

The second half was one-way traffic for the Bluebirds, who finally scored their second of the afternoon on 51 minutes when Farr spilled Davies' right wing centre and Rawlins had the simple task of nodding the ball into an empty net from eight yards.

Brown put the result beyond doubt on the hour. Davies' right-wing throw found Harrington, whose cross was missed by Tweddle but converted with ease by Brown at the far post.

Bent was foiled by a diving save by Farr as Chippenham continued in the ascendancy, but did not have to wait long before notching his 19th goal since arriving from Yeovil in October.

"Rawlins was the provider this time, and sent over a pinpoint cross from the right that Bent headed superbly into the top left corner of Farr's net from ten yards.

Swindon player-coach Ruddock could not hide his disappointment at the performance of his young side.

He said: "It was men against boys. I was very disappointed and told them that I was a bit embarrassed.

"They beat a very strong Cardiff side three days ago and might have thought they could come here and it was going to be easy. We looked like we had come here for a Sunday afternoon stroll."