CHIPPENHAM Town manager Mike Cook said his players did “magnificently” at the weekend after drawing 2-2 away at Eastbourne Borough.

Normally, a 90th-minute penalty going against the Bluebirds would be too much to take. But while Cook admitted it was certainly disappointing, the Bluebirds boss said fact that his team came from a goal down to lead 2-1 after Kieran Parselle had been sent off after only 10 minutes was more than encouraging.

Eastbourne took the lead in the sixth minute at Priory Lane through Charlie Walker before Parselle was dismissed as last man in the 10th.

Harvey Bunker dispatched two penalties – one either side of half-time – to turn the game on its head, before a 91st-minute spot-kick from Josh Oyinsan saw the points shared.

While Cook was left slightly disgruntled at the late penalty award, he was full of praise for his Chippenham squad.

He said: “We did really well. If you get somebody sent off after 10 minutes it’s always going to be a long, old 80 minutes thereafter – which is how it proved to be. The players did magnificently to be fair to them, I was really, really pleased with them.

“And I think it showed off the back of two bad results and two bad performances that it’s not all doom and gloom, we’ve still got a bit of fuel left in the tank.”

A key player in Chippenham’s battling draw was Swindon Town loanee, Ricky Aguiar. Previously at Worthing, Aguiar signed for the Bluebirds on a month-long loan in a bid to gain more regular first-team football.

Cook was delighted to bring the attacking midfielder in and said the work that he and his team put in to securing a result on a Saturday sometimes goes amiss.

He said: “I had to go down to Plymouth last week to watch Argyle v Swindon in the EFL Trophy, and Ricky was playing for Swindon.

“He did great on the night, especially as he’s been a non-league footballer and he’s stepping up.

“When we were offered Ricky, I said we needed to watch him first. It was well worth the four hours there and four hours back, getting home at 2am.

“Those are the things that some of the fans don’t see. We’re all trying to get a result for Chippenham Town, which is very difficult in this league when you consider there are six or seven full-time teams.

“Then you’ve got little old Chippenham who train twice a week trying to compete – I think some people have got to remember that at times.”