CHARD Town Reserves were left to rue a series of missed chances as they went down 1-0 at home to Winkleigh on Saturday.

Playing up the hill in the first half Chard went close in the opening seconds when Winkleigh’s goalkeeper made a fine save with his legs to stop a low powerful drive by Darren Contreras.

The resulting corner was claimed by the keeper and cleared upfield. The ball was allowed to bounce by Tom Symes and the ball fell to the striker who skipped past challenges from Nathan Warren and Ben Sheahan to slip the ball under the advancing Dowling.

A shell-shocked Chard responded well with Contreras and Liam Cleal looking dangerous in the wide positions. Adam Cole then had a good effort just drift wide of the post, as did Simon Vincent.

Chard should have levelled on 28 minutes when Cleal’s fine shot was saved and Vincent managed to hit the bar from close range.

Cleal, Cole and Contreras all had further efforts blocked or saved, The second half was a similar story.

Spurdle had a powerful drive blocked, as did Vincent who found another piece of fine defending denying him another goal scoring opportunity.

Chard then had another golden chance on 72 minutes when a great run by Vincent saw him hit a left foot shot from 20 yards, the ball crashed against the bar and rebounded to Robinson.

With keeper out of position, Robinson missed the ball completely and the chance had gone.

Contreras then had to come off injured and young Ricardo Silva replaced him down the right. The change nearly paid off straight away as Silva unleashed a rocket with his right foot, which just fizzed past the post.

After a lot of huffing and puffing by Chard, the final whistle went and Chard had lost a game that they should have picked up three points easily.

Manager Gavin Churchill said: “I just can’t believe we didn’t win today, we were the better team for most of the match, but one little error at the back and a huge list of missed chances have cost us again.

“We must learn to become for ruthless in front of goal. We have only scored five in five matches and four of them came against South Zeal.