CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier was happy to come away from the first game of the season with an ugly 2-1 win away to Dunstable Town.

Having gone all pre-season without tasting defeat, the Bluebirds continued that form into their league campaign, but it did not go as smoothly as some of their friendly outings.

It took a stoppage-time winner from summer signing Andy Sandell to claim all three points, after Dunstable had pegged the visitors back from an early strike from Zac Reynolds turned into his own net from a James Guthrie cross.

“I’m just glad to get the three points,” said Collier. “The performance was a little bit under par really, but I said to the lads after that we have won ugly.

“I think most managers would take a victory on the first game of the season and we are just grateful for that.

“They got on the front foot quite quickly and then we got quite a fortuitous goal.

“We broke out quite well and James Guthrie’s cross onto the far post has been diverted in to give us the lead.

“Then we created a couple of decent chances, Ashan Holgate should have scored just after half-time, but has not hit the target, then they put us under the cosh.

“They were quite direct and got an equaliser in the 87th minute and you think maybe that is about right.

“Fair play to the players for showing a lot of resolve and we managed to score in the last minute from Andy Sandell, and I think his performance deserved a goal.”

Collier must now prepare his troops for their first home game of the season at Hardenhuish Park when they host Bideford, who came back from 4-1 down to earn a point on the opening day, on Tuesday night.

“We know we have got good players and good togetherness and we have shown that in the last 10 minutes,” added Collier.

“We were under the cosh to keep playing hard and playing properly and luckily the rewards came at the end.

“We’ve got a poster up in our dressing room that says ‘the hard you work the luckier you get’ and I think that was the case yesterday.

“I think we will be stronger for those points and it stand us in good stead for the next two home games.

“We know that we are in for a difficult game against Bideford but it is one we should look forward to.

“It will be the same squad, whether we tinker with it, I haven’t thought too much about that yet.

“Hopefully everyone has come through the first game ok and we’ll be in good shape looking forward to the first home game.”