MOST managers who see their relegation-battling side collect five points from nine against in a week would be pleased – but Chippenham Town boss Gary Horgan admitted he was slightly disappointed by the haul.

The Bluebirds’ chief felt – after deservedly beating local rivals Bath City 3-1 on Boxing Day – his players should have held on to their 2-1 lead at promotion-chasing Braintree Town in the final game of 2022 and could have completed a league double against the Romans on New Year’s Day.

The 0-0 draw with Bath was the first goalless draw between the pair since 1901.

Reflecting on a promising past week, Horgan believed an encouraging period could have been even better.

He said: “I’m really pleased with the fact that we’ve gone unbeaten against, effectively, three teams in the top 10.

“I’m really, really pleased with the performances, for sure, and that’s capped off with a clean sheet on New Year’s Day.

“But it’s tinged with a tiny bit of disappointment, I guess, given that we were leading at Braintree in the latter part of that game and one lapse has probably cost us another two points which would have seen us get out of the bottom three.

“And then again on New Year’s Day, I felt we let Bath off the hook a little bit. We didn’t necessarily do enough to win that game, but I felt we were the better team.

“It was a really good period with five points from nine against three teams in the top 10, but I felt there were nine points there for the taking really.”

Despite avoiding defeat in the recent trio of fixtures, Chippenham remain in the National League South relegation zone by a couple of points but with two games in hand over Cheshunt above them.

Horgan is hopeful that his side’s flurry of good performances – combined now with a handful of positive results – will help maintain momentum and result in a bountiful January which will greatly ease the club’s relegation fears.

He said: “You’ve heard me mention a couple of times that we’ve got a really busy January where we’re at home a lot.

“On New Year’s Day, nine out of our last 10 games were away, and seven of those were in the league.

“That goes to show what a difficult period we’ve had, and although we played well during that time, we just hadn’t got the result to match. But then on Boxing Day [against Bath] we got both.

“It’s good to hit a bit of form and momentum going into this period – there’s no better time than when you’re coming up to a run like this.”