CHIPPENHAM Town chief Mark Collier was delighted to see his side continue to lay the foundations for a fruitful season with victory over Hayes & Yeading United on Saturday afternoon.

The Bluebirds, who have now lost just once in their last eight league outings, moved themselves up to second in the Southern League Premier Division table with a 3-0 triumph over their west London opponents at Hardenhuish Park.

Striker Andy Sandell was the man of the hour as he fired home a second-half hat-trick, with United ending the afternoon with nine men as Collier’s troops picked up another welcome three-point haul.

“We’re up to second in the league and I’m absolutely mindful that there’s a long way to go but points at this stage of the season are very important,” said the Chippenham manager.

“There are plenty of games to come but there are 22 teams that would love to be in the position that we’re in now.

“Our aim is to try and improve upon last year, finish in the top five and make the play-offs.

“Our confidence is good and we’ve only lost three times all season, which is a great return.

“I think that our experience of last year has helped us and we’ve got some good steel about us when things aren’t going our way – when we weren’t able to play our football in the first half, we were patient and that was good to see.”

Sandell made the breakthrough when he headed home and the frontman was able to make it 2-0 from the penalty spot after visiting goalkeeper Louis Wells brought down David Pratt, receiving a red card for his troubles.

Frontman Sandell rounded things off with his hat-trick goal while Hayes & Yeading had another player, Cole Brown, sent off for violent conduct in the latter stages.

Collier added: “We didn’t start particularly well and found it difficult to impose ourselves in the first half so when we got in at half-time, we told them to try and take some more time and we managed to get ourselves ahead.

“They’ve had a man sent off and they’ve lost a bit of discipline at the end of the match and gone down to nine men when another one of their lads has been shown a red card for an attempted headbutt on Jon Beeden.”

The Bluebirds are next in action when they host Leiston in the second qualifying round of the FA Trophy next weekend.