CHIPPENHAM Town manager Mark Collier bemoaned his side’s slow start once again as they were beaten 1-0 by Wealdstone on Saturday.

Similar to the previous game’s defeat against Woking, the Bluebirds got off to sluggish start once more and went behind 30 minutes in following Stefan Brown’s strike.

Collier’s side responded well after the break and had the ball in the net, only for it to be ruled out for an apparent push, but could not muster up an equaliser and ultimately left West London empty handed.

The Chippenham manager was once again left frustrated that his side had failed to heed his instructions regarding making a fast start and ended up having to rely on an attempted second-half comeback.

He said: “We were a little bit slow out of the blocks – it was similar to the Woking game.

“Wealdstone got on the front foot quite early. Saying that, we rode our luck a little bit and defended quite well, but they’ve scored quite a fortuitous goal in the end.

“It was a bit of a shanked effort which has wrong-footed the ‘keeper and gone in off the post.

“Given our second-half performance, we feel as if we’re a little unfortunate not to get something from the game.

“I don’t think we deserved to win, but we certainly deserved something.”

“We’re not getting the breaks we need in front of goal at the moment, certainly when you go away to one of the big clubs in the division.

“But again we do need to start better than we did today.”

Not only have slow starts been a constant theme for Chippenham in recent weeks, but a lack of goal-threat has been evident too.

One goal in their last five games does not make great reading for Collier and co. Meanwhile, the slow starts are not helping Town’s cause either, according to the Chippenham chief.

He said: “We talk about (starting fast) and we say to the players that once they’re over that white line, they have to take some responsibility and have that desire and application to start well.

“When that happens, you just have to hang in there and defend properly, which we didn’t manage to do.

“We know we’re going to create chances, but we need to start finding that elusive goal that we haven’t done in the last few games.

“When things are going well, those half-chances, and shots that hit the post, go in and referees are disallowing goals that, six weeks ago, they were allowing.

“When we’re playing well, we need to make sure that we’re scoring – we’re creating the chances, but we’re just not putting the ball in the net at the moment.”