10 man Hungerford crash out of the Trophy

There had been plenty of snow in the Midlands on the long journey to Cheshire ,, but it was warmer when we reached Chester and there was no problem with the pitch, although there was snow on the Welsh hills in the distance. The Lookers Vauxhall Stadium is an impressive facility and we received a warm and friendly reception when we reached the ground.
The result appears to show an easy win for the home side, but it does not give a fair reflection of the game, for we easily held our own against the Vanarama National League side for over an hour and were well in the game until we conceded three late goals when we were down to ten men, in front of a respectable crowd of over 1700.
We started well and had an early chance when James Clark’s corner was headed out and the rebound hooked wide while Garyn Preen’s cross found Clark in front of goal, but he shot straight at Jon Worsnop from close range, but generally the teams cancelled each other out and we were never in danger during a solid first half display.
However, after 64 minutes the ball was played wide to Jordan Bushell and he beat Paul Strudley with a fierce cross-shot. He game was still wide open, but the referee earned few plaudits and the game swung towards the home side when Scott Rees was booked and received a second yellow almost immediately followed by the inevitable red card. Worsnop punched away a dangerous cross, but we found it hard to open up the Chester defence when we were a man down and we tired near then end as we had to cover more and more ground with a depleted side.
Nevertheless we were still in with a chance until Ross Hannah scored in the 83rd. minute and Jonny Hunt made it 3-0 only 2 minutes later to ensure victory for the home side with substitute Jason Gilcrist hammering the final nail in the coffin 4 minutes into injury tome.
Not surprisingly National League sides dominate the final stages of the Trophy we were the final Sothern League side to br knocked out.
Team;Strudley, Tyler, John, Boardman, Day, Rusby, Clark (Draycott), Rees, Jarvis, (Goodger), Herring, Preen (Brown). Subs; Horgan, Jones.