CHIPPENHAM Town manager Gary Horgan was left to wonder “what if?” following his side’s 6-1 FA Cup second-round defeat to Burton Albion on Sunday.

The Bluebirds frustrated their League One opponents for almost half an hour before Jonny Smith opened the scoring and Deji Oshilaja added a second prior to the break.

After Bobby Kamwa made it three – following a brief period of Chippenham pressure – Harry Parsons provided a moment of magic for the 700 fans who had journeyed up from Wiltshire on the hour.

But it was not to be the Bluebirds’ day as Sam Winnall’s brace and another from Deji Oshilaja wrapped up a convincing victory for a side 71 league places above Chippenham.

MATCH REPORT: Bluebirds' FA Cup run ends with emphatic defeat at Brewers.

Post-match, Horgan pondered whether his game plan had not helped his team to produce their best football.

He said: “I’m fairly honest with my post-match interviews, and if I got the set-up wrong then fine.

“You could see the game plan was really to, not necessarily stay in it, but maybe we were a bit too passive in the first half.

“That wasn’t really the plan, the plan was to keep in our shape and keep it tight so that we could get into half-time still in the game.

“Midway through the first half, we’re still at 0-0 and the only chances they’ve created are from set-pieces or long throws.

“Any team would struggle to deal with that if you haven’t got the physicality. We were undone by one, and then from there it becomes an uphill battle.”

A vastly more entertaining contest ensued after the break as Chippenham opened up and showed their true quality – culminating in Parsons’ well-taken goal with half an hour to play.

Horgan revealed a liberating half-time team talk and releasing the handbrake tactically allowed his players to show what they were really capable of.

He said: “I said to them at half-time, we wouldn’t want to let the moment pass us by.

“And while we’d asked them to stay in their shape in the first half, I thought we were a bit too passive really.

“We probably weren’t aggressive enough in making it difficult for them, that’s something we got spot on in the first round.

“The first goal in the second half was going to be crucial, and that third goal was probably the one that undid us.

"But I was really, really proud of the second-half performance in particular.”