Chesham 1, Hungerford Town 2

This was the start of a crucial run of three fixtures which could set the tone for the rest of the season. Win two or three and we should be still well in the play-off battle, lose all three and our hopes would be dashed, so the visit to Chesham was a vital match. After a poor run of away results, we turned the tables with our best performance of the season on the road by winning at The Meadow, which saw us climb above Chesham in the league to put us in 8th place. Our opponents missed out in the play-offs last season and are trying hard to make up for last season’s disappointment whilst we face another tough task on Monday when we visit Redditch, themselves play-off candidates, and follow that by entertaining Cirencester, who are doing extremely well on their return to the Premier Division. This is a very difficult run of fixtures, but we all know that there are no easy games at this elevated level and we must battle hard every week to get any reward.
There was a scare when Paul Strudley came out and failed to reach a long shot but it flew well wide and the keeper had obviously judged it well, and we were soon on the attack, Charlie Mpi giving us the lead in the 7th.minute when he flicked on a long ball from James Clark to beat the advancing Shane Gore. There was soon a worrying moment when Mpi limped away from a tackle by Luke Allen but he continued without any further problem. James Pilling shot well over when he seized a misplaced clearance, but Jon Boardman and Matt Day both headed away dangerous crosses when the home side counter-attacked, and we held on to our lead fairly comfortably until half-time.
The home side were obviously roused by their team talk, for they came out to have the better of play after the interval as we were forced to defend more deeply and Strudley brought off a good save after James Rusby had lost possession. Chesham gained a couple of corners and eventually levelled through Nathan Poulton midway through the half after we had failed to get the ball clear, and the home supporters obviously thought that this was the turning point. However, we now began to play with more freedom and, after a good passing movement James Clark (pictured) fired a tremendous shot into the roof of the net in the 72nd. minute to regain the lead, and the same player almost scored gain with a shot just over the bar as we played out time with our lead never seriously threatened to complete a good peformance.
Team;Strudley, Rusby, Horgan(Munday)Boardman, Day, Pilling, Clark,Collins( Stow ),Mpi(Goodger),Draycott, Smith. Subs;Norris, O, Brien.