DEFENDER Tom Gould believes the Chippenham Town cause has not been helped by injuries limiting the chance to field a settled defence.

But he hopes the return to the side of former Swindon Town and Reading defender Gareth Davies will steady the ship.

"It's difficult because last year we had Bittner in goal, myself, Scorch (Simon Charity), Thorney and Colin pretty much playing week in week out," he said.

"We've had injuries and I can't remember the last time we've had a settled back four. We need continuity but against Stafford it was a completely new back four.

"It's difficult but it's no good moping around looking at your boots all week.

"We've got to work hard and I don't think it's about fitness it's those individual errors.

"It doesn't help you losing a goal after six minutes when you are low on confidence. We needed to puff our chests out and put some tackles in but losing the second and third goals it was just sort of shambolic."

"Gareth coming back is a boost. It's his presence more than anything," added Gould.

"Looking at the back four I'm not a massive talker and Nathan and Luke when he plays are the same."

The centre-back admitted the players had been "desperately disappointed" with their performance against Stafford.

"We went in at half-time and there was nothing really Mingsy could say because we let everyone down," said Gould.

"We let ourselves down, we let Mingsy down, we let the fans down and we just didn't get going. After playing well on Wednesday and doing okay at Dorchester the first half was very poor.

"It was a surprise because after the last two games everyone was confident in there ready to go out and give it a go."

Gould put the poor first half down to individual errors but also gave Stafford credit for taking advantage.

"They were a good side but we shot ourselves in the foot early on," he continued.

But Gould did feel there were positives to be taken from the second half and hopes the players can pick themselves up for Saturday's trip to Merthyr Tydfil.

"The second half was positive and we had to be," the centre back added.

"If we keep working hard and Mingsy gets a full week's training I'm sure we will improve."

"Merthyr are down there as well so it is a game that we need to take points from with them struggling and us rock bottom."