CHIPPENHAM Town chief Mark Collier joked that he wouldn’t mind his side slipping on the underdog tag for the next round of the FA Cup.

The Bluebirds are in Monday's third qualifying round draw but only after being pushed all the way by Hellenic League outfit Ardley United on Saturday, with the lower-league visitors putting up a stern resistance before finally succumbing to a last-gasp Omar Simpson goal.

Collier is in no doubt that Chippenham deserved to win 1-0 and progress in the country’s most famous cup competition and says that getting through the second qualifying round was all that mattered.

“For the club, it’s a fantastic result - maybe not a performance but the result is everything for the football club and when the draw comes out on Monday, nobody realises that it was a close 1-0,” said the Bluebirds boss.

“Like any other football club, it’s well-documented that teams need finances. We haven’t budgeted for a cup run and that’s £7,500 into the coffers now so it’s good news for everybody.

“And hopefully we’ll get another favourable draw but off the back of that, I’d rather go to somebody else and be the underdogs ourselves.

“We’ve thrown some attackers on at the end to really go for it. We were creating chances all the time, it was just who was going to take that one.

“The keeper’s made a couple of good saves, we missed some chances as well and you just think hopefully it will come and obviously Omar’s come up with the goods.

“They’ve sat back, sucked it all in and defended in numbers. We expected exactly that to happen and they did it particularly well but when those chances came along, we needed to take them and we didn’t.

“You think sometimes it might come back to haunt you but it didn’t in the end because Omar’s had a great finish.”

Midway through the second period, an upset looked likely as Ardley were awarded a penalty when James Guthrie felled Luke Ingram in the box but Collier revealed that a scouting trip earlier in the month played a big part in Kent Kauppinen saving Callum Convey’s spot-kick.

The Chippenham manager said: “We needed to concentrate and make sure they didn’t get a chance and they got one because we’ve been a bit sloppy in possession,.

“James Guthrie’s made an unnecessary tackle, which has caused a penalty, but I’d gone to watch them against Shrivenham (on September 17) and (number) 4 had taken the penalty and gone bottom left.

“So it was a bit of advice for Kent there and the evening in Shrivenham has paid for itself really because that’s where he’s gone.

“I did say they were going to have a little spell in the game, which they did, and they got a penalty but Kent has saved it.”