Wasteful Town fall to leaders

The Bluebirds dominated the first half of the clash in front of a season's high crowd of 830 at Hardenhuish but failed to convert a succession of chances.

Charlie Griffin had an early effort blocked and the rebound fell to strike partner James Constable who shot straight at Crawley keeper Andy Little.

Ian Herring and Wayne Thorne were both off target with strikes from the edge of the area and Tom Gould headed Scott Walker's corner into the magnetic grasp of Little.

Constable raced clear on 30 minutes and shot beyond Little from an angle but Sean Hankin slid in to prevent the ball from finding the bottom corner.

Ben Judge then threw himself in front of another Constable effort towards the end of a goalless first period.

Chippenham were less incisive after the break, leaving Marney to break the deadlock on 67 minutes.

Paul Armstrong's long throw bounced across the face of Town's goal, Karl Reddy got a flick and Marney prodded home from close range.

There was little indication of a Chippenham fightback until the visitors were reduced to 10 men with four minutes remaining Justin Gregory receiving a second booking for a foul on Gary Horgan.

Griffin then had two golden opportunities to earn the hosts a point.

The Bluebirds' top scorer was denied by a superb save from Little before heading wide from a yard at the death.

Chippenham boss Steve White said: "We should have won the game in the first half with the number of chances we created.

"We just didn't quite have the cutting edge that ruthless streak in front of goal that we have had in recent weeks.

"There's no question that we deserved at least a draw.

"The fact that we are saying that after playing the top team who have a budget three times bigger than ours shows we are making progress."

CHIPPENHAM: Hervin, Green, Walker, Towler, Gould, Charity, Horgan, Herring, Griffin, Constable, Thorne. Subs: Allison, Badman, Paul, Robertson, Wilmot.