CHIPPENHAM Town boss Mark Collier was happy to take a point in what he described as a tame end of season affair with Bideford.

Both sides cancelled each other out during the 1-1 draw as the Bluebirds failed to capitalise on the visitors having ten men for half of the game.

With five minutes to go to the break a fracas broke out after a foul by Town’s Michael Pook. When the dust had settled Pook was shown a yellow card and Bideford skipper Richard Groves a straight red.

Chippenham opened the scoring on 58 minutes when Jack Odam volleyed home a ball from the left.

Bideford brought the scores back level in the 78th minute when Stuart Downing headed home from a corner to take a share of the points.

“It was an end of season affair in all fairness,” said Collier.

“The first half was fairly even and we scored a decent goal midway through the second half, then they came on particularly strong.

“They had a right go at it and scored from a set-piece.

“They are quite a big side and we lost (defender) Mark Preece through injury and probably missed him at the back.

“I think overall it was a fair result and I think both sets of fans went home fairly happy at the end of it.”

Collier already has his eyes firmly fixed on next season and will be looking to bring in a goalscorer to help fire them up the league, after an 11th place finish in the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division.

“The planning for next season starts now,” he added.

“I think the progression has been good and we have got more points than we have done in the last four seasons so we are happy with that.

“We knew that it would be a difficult season due to the fact that we brought so many new players.

“I think if we add a couple more players then we can certainly push on.

“There is no reason why we can’t do that because we have competed with all the top sides in the division but obviously we have drawn far too many games.

“We need to score more goals but goalscorers come at a premium and we are going to spend this summer looking for one.

“The building blocks are in place and the stability is there for us to move forward.”

Charlie Griffin impressed in the 10 games he played during his return to the club at the tail-end of the season, scoring six, and Collier has said he will discuss the future of the veteran striker in the next few weeks.

“Charlie’s criteria was to play the 10 games and he would have a look at us and we’d have a look at him and we’d have a chat at the end of the season,” said the Hardenhuish Park boss.

“We will sit down in the next couple of weeks and decide which way we are going to go with that.”