Mings refuses to concede defeat in title race

6:45am Saturday 23rd February 2008

CHIPPENHAM Town make the journey to Tiverton Town today with manager Adie Mings refusing to rule out the possibility of automatic promotion from the Southern League Premier Division.

The Bluebirds trail league leaders Team Bath by four points and the students have three games in hand over Mings' men.

Chippenham's hopes of automatic promotion suffered a blow on Saturday when they were held to a 2-2 draw by promotion rivals King's Lynn.

When asked if he thought the title was beyond The Bluebirds, Mings said: "At this present moment in time all we're concentrating on is winning football matches. I just think we need to keep winning as many games as we can.

"I'm hoping to go on a very good little run and we can hopefully get that extra little bit to win games when it's tight."

The Chippenham boss said he was pleased at the support his team received from fans this week, after his rallying call last week.

Mings said: "I would like to thank all the supporters that turned up on Saturday and on Monday at Ciren. The supporters have got a big part to play and we're hoping for more of the same."

The Bluebirds boss said he expected a very different encounter to the last time his team met Tiverton, when they thrashed their opponents 5-1 in October.

Mings said: "No two games are the same. They've made five or six changes to the side we're playing on Saturday and have had a big shake-up in personnel.

"They've brought in Phil Walsh from Bath, who is a very good striker, and they have got some good players in there.

"They beat Bromsgrove 1-0 at the weekend and drew 1-1 at King's Lynn. We know it's going to be another tough afternoon down there."

Iain Harvey is still troubled by a hamstring problem and Ross Adams and Kye Holly are out. Tom Etheridge and Aaron Cornwall are suspended.