A penalty shootout decided the winners of the Hungerford cup after a 1-1 draw between Hungerford and Thatcham at Bulpit Lane. Shane Cooper-Clarke headed Thatcham ahead inside 8 minutes from a Castle cross before the visitors had a great chance to double their advantage when Caluum Parsons stole possession off player-manager Ian Herring to race away only to shoot low into the gloves of debutant Jokull Anderson. Hungerford controlled possession and worked a nice equaliser through Ramone Rose before his long range strike had to be pushed away by Chris Rackley. On 25 minutes last season’s top goal scorer for the Kingfishers, Cooper-Clarke, had to be substituted but teammate Lewis Coyle nearly restored the away side’s advantage with a fizzing shot just going wide.

After the interval a Crusaders trialist forced a save from the goalkeeper after a bursting run before Castle had to clear off the line from a towering home header. Thatcham had chances from a late flurry of corners causing the home defence problems; however, with just two minutes to go the ball fell to visiting attacker Matt Benham whose shot couldn’t beat the home goalkeeper.

The game therefore went to penalties to decide the winner of the Hungerford cup. At 5-5 all players had converted there spot kicks but Tommy Ouldridge then blazed over the bar. Conor Waldon then won it for Thatcham when he coolly tucked away his spot kick.

Ciaran Morrison