CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier said he was disappointing not to be able to carry on his side's positive recent run of form as their away fixture against Welling United was called off due to a frozen pitch on Saturday.

Since suffering two defeats to Bath and Eastbourne Borough in their opening fixtures of 2019, the Bluebirds have picked up seven points from nine available and were confident of picking up another good result heading into Saturday’s scheduled game against sixth-place Welling.

But freezing temperatures across the country put paid to that and Collier is now hoping his team can ready themselves for the rearranged game this Tuesday night at Park View Road.

On Saturday’s postponement, the Town manager said: “Obviously, we would have liked to have been playing but the decision has been made this morning and you can’t argue with it.

“They were suffering with frost on the pitch and then they had a little bit of snow on top of that too.

“The only positive for us is that it gives our injured players a little bit more time to recover and get back, so they’ll be pleased.

“The negative side of it is that we wanted to carry on with the good little run of form we’ve been on recently and logistically we’ll have to travel down there on a Tuesday evening, but we’re used to it now.”

Chippenham are currently 11th in National League South and find themselves seven points off a play-off spot with 14 games to go.

Following an encouraging start to the season, the Bluebirds’ form started to drop off around the Christmas period when Collier’s men were not given a week’s rest between games.

They won only one game out of five between Boxing Day and the first week in January, but Collier says the absence of a midweek fixture and their upturn in form occurring at the same time was no coincidence.

He said: “I think (not playing midweek) is making a difference now, yes. It is well documented that we’ve had some key players out injured, so giving them more time to recover has definitely helped our cause.

“You can’t underestimate how much of an effect that has on the people at the club.

“They’re signed on contracts because of their experience, because they do a job for the team week in, week out.

“We hadn’t had that over the Christmas period, so giving us some time in between games certainly helps us prepare properly and we’re quite happy at this moment in time to be playing Saturday to Saturday.”