MANAGER Mark Collier says luck wasn’t with Chippenham Town after watching his side go down to a 1-0 loss at Truro City on Tuesday.

With horrific conditions and a round trip of almost 400 miles, the Hardenhuish Park chief says there wasn’t much his team could do to contend with the weather.

After a goalless first half, the home side broke the deadlock through Andrew Neal in the 52nd minute, assigning the visitors their fifth defeat of the National League South campaign.

“In all fairness, weather conditions were bad up this way, so on the coast, they were absolutely horrendous,” said Collier.

“The wind was blowing across the pitch and down the pitch, so that made playing football less than ideal.

“However, I thought we were good value for the first half. They hit the bar but we had a couple of good chances, Scott Twine had one cleared off of the line.

“We certainly had the dominance of the ball even though we didn’t score. I said to the lads: ‘One goal is going to win this game’. Then, three or four minutes later they scored.

“There were positives. It was a long trek and we went toe-to-toe with them. At the moment, we aren’t getting the little things go our way.

“We need to stick together as one and the tide will turn.”

With the Bluebirds chasing the equaliser, substitute Andy Sandell failed to have the desired effect as he was sent off a minute after coming on in the 86th.

The striker was accused of stamping on a home player, but Collier disputes that and will now make up his mind if he wants to pursue an appeal.

“It’s a difficult one. He’s come on in the last minutes of the game, there was a set piece and people were jostling for areas in the box,” said Collier.

“The ball comes in, there is a coming together and he has caught the lad, then the referee informed us he looked at the player and stamped on him deliberately.

“There was no intent. We have great video evidence and we will have to decide what we are going to do.”

At the weekend, Collier will kick-off the club’s FA Cup campaign with a trip to Southern League Premier Division side Weymouth in the second qualifying round.

Ahead of that game, the Chippenham chief has been handed an injury boost as Will Richards, Jake Andrews and Dean Evans have all returned to full fitness.

“Suddenly we have three big players back in the squad and they will make a difference, as they would to any team,” he added.

“We always enjoy going to Weymouth, normally there is a big crowd when we are in town but it’s a banana skin.

“They’ve started well, it would be nice to get away from the league because we have played a lot of football over a short space of time.

“It will be good to see if we could get a little cup run going.”