MARK Collier is hoping that the advantage his Chippenham Town side have already eked out over their play-off rivals is set to pay dividends when the season nears squeaky bum-time.

The in-form Bluebirds, who are unbeaten in their last five league outings and have won their last three matches in that sequence, where they put four goals past Cirencester Town, Leamington and St Neots Town, had their momentum put on ice on Tuesday as Chesham United’s visit to Hardenhuish Park was curtailed by a frozen pitch.

However, this week’s postponement was of little concern to Collier, whose team are currently second in the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division table on 52 points, four behind Poole Town.

Chippenham have played a game more than second-placed Weymouth and have also completed as many as four more matches than some of the chasing pack but points on the board count most to the Bluebirds boss, who is predicting that other teams may falter when it comes to playing catch-up later this year.

“We’ve been in good form and we’ve been playing well and scoring goals but we’re not too worried about the Chesham game being off because we’ve already played a lot more games than other teams have,” said Collier.

“We’ve already got points in the bag and it’s going to be difficult for other teams when they’ve got to play twice a week because it’s tough in our league with all of the travelling that you have to do.

“We’re just concentrating on trying to win football matches. I think that you’re going to need 80 points to get into the play-offs this year but at the same time, we’re trying to concentrate on winning the next game and then the game after that.

“If we can’t finish first, we’ll try and finish second and if we can’t finish second, we’ll try and finish third.”

On the transfer front, Collier revealed that he still has a handful of irons in the fire, with the Bluebirds boss currently taking a look at a wide player and a versatile midfielder.

The Chippenham manager said: “We’re talking to a couple of players at the moment but I think it might take until the weekend to hear anything firm either way.

“We’ve had seven days in for a wide player – they’re now up and we’re able to talk to him – and we’ve also been talking to a bit of a utility man, who can play all across the midfield.”

The Bluebirds next outing is now set to be a home meeting with Histon on Saturday.

Chippenham were held to a goalless draw away to the Stutes, who are 20th in the table, back in August and Collier is expecting a wily challenge from the Cambridgeshire outfit this weekend.

“I went to watch Histon play at Cirencester a few weeks ago and they won 2-1,” he said.

“They’ve got Steve Fallon back in as manager. He’s a canny character and he was their manager back when they were in the Conference and were beating teams like Swindon Town and Leeds United (in the FA Cup).”

Chippenham will be without Jon Beeden, who is still struggling with both ankle and shoulder injuries, this weekend but midfielder Chris Allen and full-back Scott Bevan could both return from illness.