MARK Collier says his Chippenham Town team deserved the draw they got after a bizarre National League South encounter with St Albans City at Hardenhuish Park.

Defender Will Richards put the Bluebirds ahead when he slotted past goalkeeper Dean Snedker, after latching onto a flick-on from Andy Sandell’s long throw in the opening exchanges.

After a short spell in front, Zane Banton levelled proceedings in the 17th minute as he watched his strike fizz through a crowd and past goalkeeper Jared Thompson As the game approached the halfway stage, Chippenham regained the lead though.

Richards again got things moving for Collier’s men when he powered home a header from Scott Twine’s corner in the 32nd minute.

With 66 minutes played, City’s Tom Bender made the most of a chance as he dragged the visitors level with a header at the back post to make it 2-2.

Alex Ferguson then fired home in the second half to hand Chippenham the advantage, but that was soon scrubbed out by the visitors who struck late on through Rhys Murrell-Williamson to claim a draw.

Collier admitted he wasn’t dissatisfied with the point and reckoned it was difficult to summarise such a turbulent game. “You would think scoring three goals would be enough to win a game of football, that is the disappointment from our point of view,” he said.

“Again, we were a threat going forward and were dangerous from set-pieces but we conceded a couple of sloppy goals and the final one unfortunately took a bit of a deflection.

“Overall, it was a great game for the crowd, six goals and lots of incidents going on and a couple have gone against us.

“I think there were a couple of incidents which could have saved the game. The big talking point was the penalty (incident) when it was 2-1 to us.

“It’s not been given which was a little bit unfortunate. I’m not blaming the result on that, but what goes around comes around so we will have something in our favour later in the season.

“I think the lads felt a little bit hard done by, but St Albans are a decent side, they had a lot of pace, and it was a decent game so credit to both sides.”

Chippenham's next outing comes in the Wiltshire Senior Cup, where they come up against Toolstation League Premier Division outfit Melksham Town at home.

Due to the quick turnaround, Collier acknowledged the game is the perfect chance to utilise some of his squad, by getting minutes into players who have been on the periphery so far this term.

"Melksham on Tuesday is a good opportunity for me to make some changes and get some players some game time," he said.

"That is important for us to do, so we will use it to get some of the lads out there playing some top football.”