CHIPPENHAM Town are back in the hunt to be crowned kings of the county and manager Mark Collier believes his Bluebirds side are where they belong.

Chippenham eased to a 5-0 victory over Wroughton in the first round of the Wiltshire Senior Cup on Tuesday evening, marking their return to county cup competition after a hiatus of more than four years.

The Bluebirds were last entered in the Wiltshire Premier Shield – a four-team competition involving themselves, Swindon Town, Swindon Supermarine and Salisbury – in 2012, with that season’s final between Marine and Salisbury not taking place until January 2013 due to fixture congestion.

However, this term, Chippenham, along with the other local Evo-Stik League Southern outfits, have been brought in to the Senior Cup to compete alongside the likes of Devizes Town, Calne Town and reigning champions Melksham Town.

The county cup will provide a welcome additional focus for the Bluebirds, who opted out of this season’s Evo-Stik League Southern Challenge Cup, and Collier reckons that it’s only right that his troops are involved with their nearest neighbours.

“When I speak to other managers of Southern League clubs, they’re all in their county cups, so I think it’s absolutely right that we’re involved,” said the Chippenham chief.

“We’re not in the Challenge Cup this year – we opted out for a small fee because there’s no real financial gain and it’s not ideal for sides that have ideas of doing something in the league.

“So the Wiltshire Cup gives us a chance to get minutes into those players that are perhaps in need of game-time. We came through Tuesday with no injuries.

“I think it’s nice to play against the local teams.

“No disrespect to the lads from Wroughton but I think they enjoyed coming over to play at Hardenhuish (Park).

“I know that there were some mixed results in this round but I think that we may start to see some more competitive games when we get to the semi-finals.

“We’re into the next round and we’ll wait to see who we get drawn against.”

Chippenham moved back up to third in the league with a 2-1 win at Kettering Town last weekend, although their county cup commitments saw a home clash with Redditch United postponed until Tuesday, November 1.

Conor McCormack remains a major injury doubt for Saturday’s game against Stratford Town while fellow full-back Matt Jones is suspended.

Alex Ferguson and Mark Preece have both been struggling with illness this week.