CHIPPENHAM TOWN (Hardenhuish Park)

SOUTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE, CHIPPENHAM TOWN 1-0 POOLE TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 413

After spending Good Friday night across the border in South Wales, today seemed a perfect opportunity to visit a ground that has been on my "to do" list for a few years.

Hardenhuish Park has been home to Chippenham Town since 1919 and has a quirky mix of stands and a sloping pitch which make for an interesting visit.

There is the main stand, for which you had to pay and extra £1 to sit in, covered terrace alongside one touchline, and open terrace behind one goal and a pre-fab terrace behind the other goal. However, the club have made this their own by incorporating it into the old terrace and fixing crush barriers, so it does actually feel part of the ground rather than just plonked down.

Founded in 1873, Chippenham reached the Southern League in 2001, after spending most of their history in the Western League. They achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2002 and have remained there ever since.

Today they were taking on current high fliers Poole Town in front of the largest crowd at Hardenhuish so far this season. The home fans were rewarded with a hard fought victory.

It was Poole who looked every part the league leaders as they took the game to Chippenham but they simply couldn't find the finish. As the game progressed Chippenham gained confidence and came more and more into it.

They had an effort that hit the post before, five minutes from time, Ashan Holgate fired home the winning goal. A fine victory for the homesters but with games in hand the defeat shouldn't really dent Poole's promotion hopes that much. We shall see.