MARK Collier said he was ‘absolutely amazed’ at Dulwich Hamlet’s league position ahead of the two sides’ FA Trophy meeting on Saturday.

While Chippenham have recently ended an 11-game unbeaten run in all competitions, Dulwich have not won a league game since August 24 – one game short of a dozen in National League South.

The Champion-Hill outfit did make it through the FA Cup first round however, just like Chippenham before losing by three goals to a League Two side, just like Chippenham.

In front of an expected 3000-strong crowd in south-east London, manager Mark Collier is looking forward to seeing if his players can go one better than the 2-2 draw they managed at home to Dulwich at the end of September.

Collier said: “Dulwich get crowds of over 2500 every week there, so it’s obviously a decent place to go and play.

“I’m absolutely amazed at where they are in the league with the players they’ve got and everything they’ve got in place there, but it will be a difficult game without a doubt.

“We had a 2-2 draw with them earlier in the season, and I’d expect this game to be another tight encounter.”

Chippenham will travel to Champion Hill confident their away form can continue at one of the loudest grounds in semi-professional football.

The Bluebirds are undefeated in their last half a dozen games on their travels after three wins and three draws in both league and FA Cup.

And while there is plenty to be encouraged by if you are a Chippenham supporter, the manager is still hunting for margins of improvement to be made by his players – especially with the ball at their feet in the final third.

If that can be achieved on Saturday, Collier is confident the travelling support will go back down the M4 a happy bunch.

He said: “We’ll have to be very good without the ball, and we have been so far this season.

“But I want us to be better with the ball – that’s something that myself and Gary Horgan are looking forward to helping the guys improve in training this week.

“We need to make better use of the ball when we’ve got it -especially in the final third and get back to being hard to beat.

“We gave a couple of sloppy goals away on Saturday, which is not like us.

“We’ve got decent away form, and we’re taking a decent following over to Dulwich, I understand.

“Hopefully we can give them something to shout about.”