MARK Collier is aiming to knit his Chippenham Town squad together as tightly as possible as the Bluebirds look for rapid improvement.

In the wake of last week’s disappointing defeat to Bashley, the Chippenham management and players got together to discuss where they fell short.

And Collier reckons he got the intended reaction in a gutsy display at promotion-chasing St Albans City on Monday, as they lost 1-0 thanks to John Fredo’s strike.

“We didn’t train last Thursday - we had a meeting with myself, Tom (Jones) and the players,” said Collier.

“We talked about where we wanted to go and the hope that everyone was on board. Obviously, Saturday’s game was off so we all got together and watched Chippenham Park play.

“We wanted to make sure we are a team and we’re sticking together. We felt that the performance at Bashley wasn’t good enough and we wanted to speak about it. We didn’t want to go straight on the training ground and forget about it.

“Myself and Tom have got responsibilities to the chairman and they’ve got responsibilities to myself and Tom, and the football club. I think you could see (against St Albans) that there’s a togetherness about the team and hopefully we’re moving in the right direction.”

Chippenham will get a chance to make instant amends for the 3-1 defeat to Bashley when the New Forest club visit the Bluebirds tomorrow in the Southern League Premier Division.