MARK Collier conceded that his Chippenham Town team left themselves wide open for a Poole Town blitz as three goals in the first 22 minutes saw the Bluebirds crash to their first defeat of the year on Tuesday night.

Promotion-chasing Poole took full advantage of Chippenham’s slow start in Dorset, with skipper Matt Coupe turning into his own net from a Luke Burbidge cross inside two minutes.

AFC Bournemouth loanee Joe Quigley then held off the attentions of the Bluebirds back line before poking into the net before keeper Kent Kauppinen brought down Marvin Brooks in the area Steve Devlin converted the resultant penalty.

Alex Ferguson squeezed home his fifth goal of the season, tapping in from a deflected free-kick, but that late strike proved little more than a consolation.

“When you make mistakes against good sides, you get punished every time and we didn’t start well at all,” said manager Collier.

“A cross has come in to the front post early on and everyone’s charged in but it’s ricocheted in off Matt Coupe. Greg Tindle has been out-fought by their striker for the second goal and then his back-pass has left Kent short and he’s brought their player down.

“We came out a lot stronger in the second half but we’d already made too many mistakes – you can’t legislate for players not doing their jobs properly.

“We had been playing well before Tuesday so we’ll try and get ourselves organised in training on Thursday.

“We know that we’re in the middle of a tough run of games – Poole, Weymouth and Truro – and we can’t make as many more mistakes against these good sides.”

Full-back Conor McCormack is still ruled out with a hamstring injury ahead of this weekend’s trip to league leaders Weymouth whilst Michael Pook was withdrawn against Poole with a groin strain but Iain Harvey returns from suspension.

CHIPPENHAM TOWN: Kent Kauppinen, Bryan Smith, Jon Beeden, Matt Coupe (C), Greg Tindle, Mark Preece, Alex Ferguson, Michael Pook (Jordan Roberts 50), Ashan Holgate (Mark Francis 79), Lee Phillips, James Guthrie (Luke Ballinger 50).

Subs not used: Conor Thompson, Toby Osman.

Attendance: 178