A DEFENSIVE lapse was to blame for Mark Collier as he watched his side fall to a shock 3-2 defeat at Cinderford Town on Tuesday night.

Despite having 49 shots on goal, the Bluebirds were unable to suitably punish the bottom-of-the league side.

Having named the same starting XI that had dispatched Cambridge City so convincingly at Hardenhuish Park on Saturday, Chippenham found themselves behind when Cinderford’s leading scorer, Gethyn Hill, netted in the 20th minute.

Andy Sendell restored parity from the penalty spot seven minutes later but a Blaine Waugh strike had the hosts in front at the break.

Cinderford extended their advantage in the 54th minute when Hill netted his second and despite Dave Pratt scoring with six minutes left, Chippenham left the Forest of Dean empty-handed.

“Unless you were there, you would never believe exactly what happened,” said Collier.

“I’ve got a little stats man and we have had 49 shots. To have that many shots away from home is absolutely unbelievable.

“Credit to their back four and goalkeeper, they blocked everything and got people on the line. If you score two goals away from home, you should win.

“That’s the disappointment, we were certainly a little bit below par defensively and that is not like us.

“I can’t hide from the fact that we are very disappointed to have dropped, what we think is three points.”

Chippenham remain second in the Premier Division, four points off leaders Leamington and without a game this weekend, Collier will be looking to work on their defensive frailties to ensure there are no repeat performances moving forward.

“The thing we have got in our team is goals and we know that. We do need to tighten up at the back, we are not going to win many games conceding three.

“There is no hiding the fact that that is disappointing. We need to get back to basics defensively. I don’t know what to put it down to, it is something we need to think about.

“People got at us too easy and ran off the back of us too easy, we didn’t track runners, people found too much space in between us.

“It is certainly something we need to be addressing in the next training session and we will do that.

“I don’t think Cinderford are a bottom-of-the-league team and I can see them shocking a few teams with the way they play.”