CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier tipped his cap to Wingate & Finchley as they dumped his side out of this season’s FA Trophy with a 3-2 win in Tuesday’s replay, writes JONATHAN LEIGHFIELD.

The Bluebirds headed to north London after the original third-qualifying round tie ended 1-1 and made an ideal start, Karnell Chambers giving them an early lead.

However, Rob Laney and Reece Beckles-Richards put the home side ahead before half-time.

Luke Ifil drilled in Wingate’s third on the hour before Chambers grabbed his second 10 minutes from time to give Chippenham hope, yet the equaliser never materialised, and the National League South side must now consign themselves to league action for the rest of this season.

Collier made five changes from the weekend’s draw, with captain Curtis McDonald being rested, but the Bluebirds boss insisted Wingate were the better team over the course of the two ties.

He said: “They played particularly well over the two games. They’ve got some good individual players and over the two legs, they’ve deservedly gone through.

“We were inefficient on Saturday and again at times on Tuesday. We’ve gone 1-0 up and looked in control of the game but then we’ve conceded two poor goals, defensively, which is a concern.

“At half-time, we asked for a little bit more from the players, we got that, and the second half was a good response, but they’ve got a third goal and that’s a difficult one to come back from.

“But we did particularly well, we got it back to 3-2 and then it looked like only one team would go on to score again but their keeper has pulled off two world class saves, and it wasn’t to be.

“The consequence of that is we’re out of the cup and you’re not going to win many games if you concede three goals."