NATHAN Rudge is pleased to see smiles on the faces of his Chippenham players after their recent upturn in form.

The Bluebirds won their third game on the trot as they beat struggling Kettering 3-0 in the Southern Premier on Saturday and the manager says his team are enjoying their football.

“I think everyone enjoys winning and I’ve said to the boys that we had to get the smiles back on our faces,” said Rudge.

“The start of the season was indifferent and we had some good results and some bad results.

“You’ve got to get people enjoying their football and that comes through winning.

“I don’t think the smile will ever be on my face but I’m chuffed to bits - me and Rich (Fey, assistant) have worked hard and it’s nice when things come off.

“But I’ve been in the game long enough to know that football can change quickly.”

Rudge says that the Bluebirds haven’t stumbled across a magic formula, despite their season being reinvigorated in the last seven days.

He said: “There’s no rhyme nor reason, football’s a very strange game and we haven’t done anything different than what we’ve done in the last month.

“Me and Rich have never stopped believing in what we’re trying to achieve and if we keep on believing, hopefully the results will keep coming.

“The momentum’s up but the boys have got to still keep turning up and doing the right things and working even harder in training.”

Chippenham notched up victory at the weekend courtesy of goals from Tom Knighton, Luke Ballinger and Lee Phillips.

The opener arrived on 18 minutes when Tyrone Mings picked out Knighton, who held off the attentions of Rudy Misambo before drilling home his fourth goal in four appearances.

Five minutes into the second half, Kettering failed to clear a ball across the face of goal by Knighton and Ballinger smashed into the net from the edge of the area.

Phillips put the game beyond the Poppies midway through the second period, when he rose well to nod James Guthrie’s cross into the bottom right corner.