CHIPPENHAM Town manager Mike Cook was as proud of his team’s all-around performance as he was with the 1-0 result against Billericay Town in National League South last weekend.

Swindon Town loanee Mo Dabre scored the only goal of the game after coming on as a substitute at half-time, curling in from the edge of the box to clinch the points for the Bluebirds.

Chippenham moved up to ninth in the table as a result of their second win in three games, but it was the slick and aggressive football that pleased Cook more at full-time.

He said: “It was nice to beat bottom of the league as well because we haven’t really done very well against the bottom teams this season.

“It was a close game to be fair – they had a few chances, so did we – but it was nice to get through that and play in such a positive and attractive way.

“It was nice to get the result, but it was even better to play the way we did.

“We even had a couple of their supporters come up to us afterwards and say we’re the best football team they’d seen down there since Dorking Wanderers.

“That means as much to me as the result does.”

Chippenham will try to keep their play-off hopes alive by notching a shock victory against National League South leaders Maidstone United on Saturday.

Cook’s men narrowly lost in Kent earlier in the season, and the Bluebirds boss is hopeful a similar standard of performance will result in a change of fortunes at the Thornbury Surfacing Stadium this weekend.

He said: “It doesn’t come much tougher, although when we played them down there we had the likes of Ricky Aguiar, Harry Parsons, Harvey Bunker, and people like that playing – we had a good team when we played at their place.

“We were unlucky to lose 1-0 to them through a really poor refereeing decision for a handball against Spencer Hamilton.

“I know their manager, Hakan (Hayrettin) quite well and he said to me after he thought that was one of the toughest games they’d had up to that point.

“Hopefully we can play to a similar standard again on Saturday.”