CHIPPENHAM Town rescued a point at Wealdstone on Saturday in an incident-packed National League South game that saw eight goals scored and three men sent off.

Mark Collier’s side took an early lead when Nick McCootie’s bicycle kick on two minutes found the back of the net.

That was doubled as Andy Sandell struck five minutes later before the home side continued a frantic start to the game with a goal of their own on 14 minutes thanks to Glenn Wilson.

Sandell doubled his goal tally on 22 minutes to restore Chippenham’s two-goal advantage before Bradley Bubb made it 3-2 moments before half-time.

The Bluebirds were then reduced to 10 men as Dean Evans was shown a straight red card to end an entertaining opening 45 minutes.

Wealdstone's Eddie Oshodi was next to be sent off after his foul shortly into the second half.

Former Chippenham forward David Pratt then turned the game on its head with a pair of quick goals midway through the second half.

Between those strikes, Alex Ferguson was sent off for Chippenham – reducing the visitors to nine men.

But Sandell wrapped up his hat-trick with five minutes remaining to secure Chippenham a deserved point.

Bluebirds boss Collier praised the efforts of both teams, adding a draw was a fair result.

He said: “Both teams went for it. The game had goals and missed chances, but both teams absolutely deserved a point.

“To go away from home and score four goals, you should be winning.

“We made some individual errors but the endeavour and commitment from the players to try and get something from the game was first class.

“Players can roll their sleeves up knowing the end of the season is approaching, but that didn’t happen.

“We’re up to 51 points with one game to play.

“Welling will be a tough game, but we want to finish the season strongly with a competitive edge."

Collier was left frustrated by a series of individual errors which led to Wealdstone’s four goals.

But he confirmed the players responsible understood where they went wrong, making the situation less worrying than it could be.

He said: “Without naming names, a couple switched off from set plays.

“That was disappointing, but the players are an honest group and they will put their hands up when they’ve done wrong.

“When players do that and recognise why we’ve conceded a goal, it’s fine. The issue is when we don’t understand why we’re letting goals in.

“Credit to Wealdstone, they’ll be pleased to have scored four goals, but like us, will be disappointed to have conceded four as well.

“The positive is we were 4-3 down with not long to go and we kept on working.

“We took a big following, so hopefully the supporters all had a positive journey home.”