CHIPPENHAM Town vice-chairman Neil Blackmore says the Bluebirds’ board backs manager Nathan Rudge to haul his side back to winning ways.

Chippenham have gone 11 matches without a win in the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division, with their latest reverse coming in last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at home to Redditch United.

Boss Rudge revealed that he had been forced to “rock the boat” behind the scenes at Hardenhuish Park on occasion this season, but the Bluebirds’ hierarchy are standing by their man to turn their club’s on-field fortunes around.

“We’re going through a tough time on the pitch at the moment but we’ve got every confidence that Nathan and Richard (Fey) will turn this around and get us back winning games,” said Blackmore, who will succeed John Applegate as chairman at the end of the current campaign.

“We understand that fans might not be happy with the way we’ve been playing recently and they’re totally understandable because they pay their money and they’re entitled to their opinion.

“Everybody wants to see their team doing well and we’re no different.

“We’re working as hard as we can with Nathan and Richard and giving them as much as help as possible so they can turn things around.”

Player-manager Rudge took over last summer and says he has been hard-nosed in his efforts to have his club operating as professionally as possible off the pitch.

“It has sometimes seemed like there are too many people that think they run the team and I’ve had to rock the boat a few times,” he said.

“It’s been like that for a long time and, in a lot of ways, the club is still run with the mentality of a Screwfix (Western) League club – and that’s no disrespect to teams at that level.

“There are still a lot of things changing and I’m trying to put a lot of things in place.

“We’re not going to give up the ghost – I’ll turn things around.”

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