THE TIDE WON'T CHANGE FOR LUCKLESS RUGBY

The saying goes, luck is never with you when you are bottom of the league and this was certainly true in at Hardenhuish Park in Wiltshire.

By Craig Webb.

Despite not creating too many chances, the team had a much better defensive display, and were terribly unlucky when refereeing decisions seem to go against them.

Manager Lee Colkin had to make one change with Aaron Stringfellow replacing defender Liam Nicell who was released by the club last week.

Striker David Kolodynski out for months with a back injury was on the substitute’s bench.

With home side pushing for a play-off place, Rugby knew this was going to be a tough test if they were going to close ever widening gap to the teams above them.

The first real chance of the game came after just four minutes when captain Ross Adams jumped highest from a corner but saw his effort go wide.

Ross Oulton who has made a good impression since joining Rugby in January showed some decent footwork by going past a couple of defenders but his effort came to nothing as did Matt Gearing’s shot from Stringfellow’s cross.

Rugby’s pressure was starting to tell and had a handball claim on the quarter hour mark, but despite half hearted appeal from Shawn Richards and the travelling fans the referee played on.

This good play from Rugby sprung Chippenham to life with Greg Tindle having a weak shot saved by Andy Stevens and Luke Gullick had an effort which was high and wide.

The Bluebirds thought they scored on 25 minutes when Rugby cleared the ball off the line twice in the space of seconds, with Karl Fellows and Delroy Gordon the saviours.

The crossbar came to Town’s rescue just a minute later when Danny Wring whipped in a cross and Powell’s effort hit the woodwork, the ball came down, but didn’t cross the line.

Gullick kept putting the pressure on the away side when Stevens had to produce a glorious reaction save to keep the striker out.

Rugby made a change early in the second half, with Fellows being replaced by Matt Brown, but within a minute Chippenham were ahead.

From a throw in midway through the half, Powell received the ball on the edge of the area did a quick turn and shot to leave Stevens stranded.

Halfway through the half, the game was pretty entertaining with action swinging from end to end, but it had a controversial moment when Brown was brought down outside the area by the goalkeeper when in on goal.

The tackle looked pretty horrendous, and despite the protests of the away fans home number one Chris Snoddy received just a yellow card.

The resulting free kick saw Oulton’s shot way wide.

With fifteen minutes left to play, Kolodynski entered the fray playing his first game of the year hoping to extend his goal tally for the season.

Chippenham substitute Jon Davies had a fantastic run through the Rugby defence as if they weren’t there, but Stevens saved the day again with a cracking save.

In the third minute of injury time, a refereeing decision again went against Rugby when Kolodynski was clipped and went down with a clear route to goal, no free kick given much to frustration of the striker.

Valley Line-up: Stevens; Stringfellow, Tullin, Birtwhistle, Gordon; Gearing, Richards, Oulton, Youngs, Fellows (Brown); Smith (Kolodynski). Subs not used: Love, Bell. Booked: None. Sent off: None.

Chippenham: Snoddy, Adams, Tindle, Harvey, Casey, Kite, Wring, Gullick, Powell, Griffin, Martin. Subs: Benison, Davies, Highmore, Lamb.