Chippenham Town 4-0 Rugby Town

Southern League Premier Division

Saturday, 29th October 2005

Attendance | 734

High-flying Chippenham Town completed a first-half rout with a solitary second half goal to comfortably secure all three points.

Manager Billy Jeffrey made one change from the win against Cirencester Town with Hereford goalkeeper Karl Lewis returning in between the sticks.

Rugby got off to the worst possible start as they were behind inside the first two minutes.  A cleverly-worked training ground set-piece saw Ian Harvey latching onto Ian Herring's free-kick and easily beating Lewis in the Rugby goal.

The visitors then had three opportunities to equalise all coming through striker David Stone.  He first fired off target from outside the area before seeing a 25-yard curler just miss the angle, however the best chance came in-between these when Chris Tullin composed himself on the right-hand side before delivering a perfect cross for Stone at the far post, but he couldn't direct his free header on target.

Chippenham, spurred on by a large crowd looking forward to an FA Cup First Round tie next week, dominated possession without really troubling Lewis too often, but when they did, they were clinical.

In the 30th minute, the home side doubled their lead when a deflected effort was not sufficiently cleared by the Rugby defence and James Constable turned in the area and slotted home.

Just six minutes later, Chippenham had put the game beyond doubt as Ian Herring beautifully dispatched a free-kick into the corner beyond Lewis from 25 yards.

The second half saw a double change down the left for Rugby, with duo Danny Williams and Tom Hannigan being replaced by Kevin Slinn and Michael Hegarty.  However, this did little to stem the tide as Chippenham continued to dominate proceedings.

A bright-looking Rugby move turned into a disaster when Tullin's pass fell short of Delroy Gordon and a tackle resulted in a perfect through-ball for substitute Dave Gilroy who had ample time to weigh up his options before lobbing the ball over Lewis and into the net.