CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier was pleased with his players’ resolve as they passed another test to remain top of the Southern League Premier Division.

Having fallen behind in the opening minute through a strike in the first minute from Dorchester’s Jonah Ayunga, Chippenham’s ability to come back from an early setback was questioned.

Andy Sandell passed a late fitness test on his knee to start for the home side, who were already without Ashan Holgate, but the forward pulled up with a tight hamstring and was forced off, to be replaced by Lee Phillips.

Moments before the break Michael Pook’s corner was flicked on and Phillips was able to head home from close range to restore parity.

Chippenham came out in the second half and looked much more composed and their dominance was rewarded in the 68th minute when Luke Ballinger’s low cross was touched in by Alex Ferguson.

Substitute Ryan Campbell secured the three points in the third minute of added time as he hit a 30-yard screamer to give keeper Alan Walker-Harris no chance.

“Believe it or not, we could have taken the lead in the first ten seconds,” said Collier.

“Chris Allen fired over from outside the box and then 30 seconds later we were 1-0 down and chasing the game.

“They (Dorchester) passed the ball particularly well in the first 20 minutes and were definitely the dominant side. But we managed to get to grips with their shape and the last 15 minutes of the first half we got our foot on the ball.

“We moved things around at half time and said that we needed to be a little bit more street-wise and once we did that in the second half we became a lot more dominant.

“When you see that Histon have gone and hit five this weekend, you realise that last weekend’s draw wasn’t such a bad result.

“We were disappointed that we didn’t get all three points at Histon and it was a little test that we had suddenly gone behind in a game against a decent side.

“They asked the question if we had the resolve to come back and we proved that with flying colours.”

Chippenham face Hundgerford Town today and Collier knows that they will now be a scalp for other teams.

“I would expect Hungerford to be in the mix come the end of the season,” he added Collier. “So it is a difficult place to go and a difficult task awaits us.

“You can play it down all you want, but we have started well. There is no denying that fact.

“All respect to our players, because they have got themselves into that position and now the test is that everybody wants to take our unbeaten record off us.”