CHIPPENHAM Town defender Greg Tindle shrugged off suggestions that his team ‘bullied’ their way to all three points at Dorchester Town on Tuesday night.

The Bluebirds finished with nine men as they won 1-0 in Dorset in midweek, leading to Magpies’ manager Phil Simkin branding Mark Collier’s men a ‘bunch of experienced bullies’.

Referee Aaron Moody sent off Toby Osman early on for an alleged headbutt on Dorchester’s Dan Smith before Iain Harvey picked up a second booking for dissent, with the home side’s Steve Walker also picking up two yellow cards.

“If you take (Matt) Coupe and Harvs out of the side, the average age would probably only be 23 or 24. A lot of our guys are playing in their first season in this league,” said Tindle.

“I saw what their manager said and I think he might just have been making excuses for his team’s performance. There wasn’t anything going on that was out of the ordinary and they had two or three lumps in their team too.

“I didn’t see the Toby incident but a few of the lads said that their guy went down like a sack of spuds to get him sent off and then I don’t think that Harvs deserved his second yellow – I think the ref knew. That’s why he sent off their bloke for something petty too.

“It was a real backs-to-the-wall performance from us in the second half and we stuck our heads in where they needed to go and did what we had to.

“The back five or six, if you include Harvs, have been working really hard on keeping clean sheets because it’s something that we didn’t do enough of last season.”

After Osman was given his marching orders for his off-the-ball clash with Smith, Dorchester’s Nick Crittenden shot wide.

Despite their man disadvantage, the Bluebirds struck to put themselves in front late in the first half, with Oakley Hanger’s failed clearance allowing James Guthrie to cross for Luke Ballinger to nod home his second goal in as many games.

In the 51st minute, Jon Beeden’s cross looped all the way onto the bar before Chippenham keeper Kent Kauppinen turned Smith’s effort onto the post before getting up quickly to deny Callum Buckley.

Dorchester’s Jake Smeeton and the Bluebirds’ Ballinger both missed chances to add to the score before the evening’s late flurry of red cards.

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