CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier admits his side’s defending must improve following Saturday’s 4-2 opening day loss to Hemel Hempstead if they are to challenge for a top-half finish.

The Bluebirds’ National League South campaign got off to a faltering start as Hemel’s Karl OliDiye bagged a match-winning brace while Stephen Cawley and Alex Osborn also found the back of Chippenham’s net.

While Collier highlighted that there were positives to take from the game, the Chippenham boss explained players that underperformed were made aware of their actions ahead of Tuesday night’s home tie against Slough Town.

He said: “Three of the goals were similar really, we got caught out by long and direct balls into our defence and we got punished.

“It’s a learning curve for us, but it’s disappointing as the back four have come up a little bit short – they’re aware of that.

“If you make mistakes at this level you will get punished, and that is what happened to us.

“We made a bad start and went down, the positive is that from there nobody felt sorry for themselves. We went back out and played some positive attacking football to take the lead.

“It’s a difficult one because we played well, but at the same time lost.”

Hemel were last season dumped out of the end-of-season play-offs after losing on penalties to Braintree Town in the qualifying stage.

Given that Dean Brennan’s men are again targeting a top spot this year, Collier revealed his troops weren’t too downbeat despite losing on the opening day of the season after a positive pre-season campaign.

He said: “You’d expect Hemel to be in and around the top bunch towards the end of the season, so absolutely there are positives to take from the game.

“For long periods we were the better side, but we defended poorly and let four goals in.

“When you score two goals away from home you do expect to get something from it, that’s the disappointing part.

“We’re disappointed with the result but we’re not too down because of how we played. Going forward we were a threat and set-pieces wise Smile and Compton were outstanding, they opened up Hemel’s defence more than once.

“Two or three have pulled up short with their responsibilities, they’re aware of that and so are we so we will move on.”

Chippenham return to National League South action on Tuesday night when hosting Slough Town.