CHIPPENHAM Town manager Mark Collier was left purring over James Guthrie’s match-winning free-kick that brought Histon’s unbeaten run to a shuddering halt.

The Stutes arrived at Hardenhuish Park having won their last five matches and with the Bluebirds missing the suspended Greg Tindle, midfielder Luke Ballinger, who was away on England Futsal duty, and the injured Darren Edwards, it could have been a tough day at the office for the hosts.

And while it a was not pretty, the goal that won the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division game was 30-yard curling free-kick from Guthrie.

“It was a magnificent finish,” Collier said. “We had spoken over the last couple of weeks about producing more quality from our free-kicks and this one was magnificent.”

The win for Chippenham means that they will go into this coming Saturday’s FA Trophy trip to Bedford Town with back-to-back successes.

“This will give us plenty of confidence going into the Trophy match,” Collier said. “We had Michael Pook and Jordan Roberts back in the side after injury and Matt Coupe was back too.

“Next week we will have Ballinger and Tindle so the squad is looking really competitive.”

The opening half saw both sides create a number of chances, the best coming from Histon’s Mateusz Kuzimski as he forced Kent Kauppinen in action.

At the other end Chippenham came close on two occasions as keeper Denzel Gerrar dived to take the ball off Mark Francis’ toes from Alex Ferguson’s low cross.

The on-loan Millwall keeper then dived superbly to keep out Conor McCormack’s low shot that came after a strong sixty yard run.

Just past the half hour mark Guthrie’s shot was too close to Gerrar, whilst an unmarked Jon Beeden headed wide at a Guthrie corner.

After the break Gerrar was in action as he kept out Pook’s free kick.

The all-important goal came on 64 minutes when Chippenham were awarded a free kick for a foul on Ferguson and Guthrie’s exquisite shot curled beyond Gerrar and into the top corner.