CHIPPENHAM Town chief Mark Collier hopes that he’s stumbled across the secret ingredient that will give his side the resilience to remain in the promotion picture this season.

The Bluebirds were rarely outside of the shake-up towards the top of the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division last term but a winless March saw them fail to secure a play-off spot, as Collier’s troops finished six points adrift of the top five.

Having performed so admirably for the majority of last season, Collier opted against major summer squad surgery, bringing in six players – most recently 21-year-old former Basingstoke Town and Metropolitan Police midfielder Andy Jenkinson – whilst five departed Hardenhuish Park.

By taking a nip and tuck approach to refining his playing options, Bluebirds boss Collier has his fingers crossed that he has prepared his team to nudge themselves to the next level.

“The players performed really well for most of last season – if we’d won two more games, we would have made the play-offs – so we know that we need to try and find some consistency,” said Collier.

“We didn’t want to make wholesale changes because we want that continuity of squad but it is important to keep things competitive and freshen things up with a few additions, which I think we’ve done.

“Ollie Taylor, Harry Grant, Scott Bevan, Leigh Henry and Ben Whitehead are the players that have left but we’ve brought in Miles John, who has looked good in training.

“Mac Dodson has done well in training and comes highly-rated from his time with Forest Green and Conor McCormack, who only played four games last year, is back fit and it’s like signing a new right-back.

“Nuno Felix has come in from Paulton Rovers and done well so far. He’s a left-back and last season, nobody really made that position their own, so he has a chance of doing that. Our midfield is an area that we think is strong and we’ve managed to add David Pratt to our strikeforce.”

The Bluebirds get the new season under way by hosting league newcomers Kings Langley on Saturday and with the division set to be as competitive as ever, Collier believes it is impossible to designate a favourite for the title.

He added: “Slough and Basingstoke have recruited good players from the league above but there’s also Kettering, who will have a big local support again. Hayes and Yeading will come into it because they’ve just come down and you can’t forget about Hitchin.

“There are almost too many good clubs to name so we’re trying not to worry about other teams – we’re just focussing on Kings Langley on August 6.”