CHIPPENHAM Town promoted themselves into the National League South play-off frame on Saturday after beating St Albans City in a five-goal thriller.

After surrendering the lead twice following goals from Jack Compton and Nat Jarvis, the Bluebirds finally sealed a deserved three points when impact substitute Nick McCootie scored in the game’s final 10 minutes.

Though teams surrounding Mark Collier’s outfit have a game in hand, the result ended a three-game winless streak and firmly directed Chippenham back in the right direction as they look to push for a play-off spot.

Delighted boss Collier heaped praise on substitutes McCootie and Jordan Edwards following their latest win, but at the same time applauded the efforts of his entire squad.

Collier said: “When you’ve got strength in depth on the bench it does make a big difference.

“Jordan Edwards didn’t have much of a say but made a difference, and McCootie obviously got the crucial goal at the end.

“When you can bring substitutes on that make a difference it always helps.

“Strength in depth is vital, but it was an all-round good team performance by everyone concerned.

“We enjoyed a good journey home.

“We’re in that play-off frame now which is excellent.

“And that’s what a couple of wins can do, it can take you places.

“Our form has been okay, we just needed to get over that line.

“A couple of tactical tweaks worked well, and we’ve set ourselves up nicely for a big test against Wealdstone next weekend.

“Every point is hard to get in this division, you have to strive and fight to get everything you possibly can.

“We enjoyed Saturday, but we’ve got Calne in the County Cup on Tuesday, that’s an opportunity to grant some game time for legs that we haven’t used as much.”

The topsy-turvy contest no doubt highlighted Bluebirds’ strength in character to Collier, who was pleased to not see heads drop despite surrendering the lead twice.

With fellow play-off hopefuls Wealdstone providing the opposition next week, Chippenham could move up to as high as second with another positive performance.

Collier said: “We were disappointed that we didn’t have a more commanding lead (in the first half), we created a couple of good chances and we got into good areas.

“But they equalised shortly before half time from a penalty.

“At half time, we needed to make sure that we stayed positive, so we could stay on the front foot and ask them some serious questions.

“That’s how it turned out, we went 2-1 ahead but they pegged it back again.

“But we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves and managed to score late through Nick McCootie.

“It was a great performance and a big three points for us.”